The Last Summer
by Miss Starfire
Summary: SEQUEL TO THE LAST MONTH. After being rescued from certain death by Gene and Tony, a Pepper Potts without memories of her past struggles to find her place in the world once more. It seems that the hard life is not done with her yet, and this time Tony will do the unthinkable to keep her safe and alive. Story 2 of 8 of The Last Chronicles.
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Holy Christ on a cracker! Is this what you think it is? Oh, yes! YES, IT IS! After a long hiatus (sorry 'bout that) I present to you the long-awaited sequel to _The Last Month_!

Oh, and the entire story is already written! I am posting the prologue here to give you time to catch up with The Last Month if you need to (which you should probably re-read after this post because this story refers back to TLM VERY heavily).

Don't you love me? I know, I know, you do ^_^

**Standard disclaimer for all my stories**: My stories are graphic, angsty, frustrating, filled with cliffhangers, drama and foul language. Read at your own risk – medical issues and subsequent bills are not covered by yours truly ;) If you don't like, please don't read. I appreciate reviews and constructive feedback but if you cannot stand the plot, save yourself and me some time and walk away. You don't have to love all IMAA stories :) I don't own IMAA. My stories are better viewed by using the "half screen" option of FFN

**Summary:** After being rescued from certain death by Gene and Tony, a Pepper Potts without memories of her past struggles to find her place in the world once more. It seems that the hard life is not done with her yet, and this time Tony will do the unthinkable to keep her safe and alive.

_**THIS IS A SEQUEL TO THE LAST MONTH. READ THAT FIRST OR BE FOREVER CONFUSED! K? Tks, bi!**_

**The Last Summer**

**Prologue**

She was not expecting any more visitors today so she adjusted her back against the strangely comfortable head of her hospital bed, closed her eyes, exhaled deeply and relaxed…

But then she heard an almost apologetic knock on the door.

Her eyes snapped open and had she not already been sat upright she would have done so as well. The cast around her right leg prevented her from moving around the bed as much as she would have liked, but thankfully for her the cast had to be on for just a short month. According to the doctor that had visited her this morning when she had first awaken from her two-week slumber since found, _someone_ had done a good job in preventing further injury on her broken leg and this had reduced the recovery time rather considerably.

No one had bothered to tell her, however, that the _someone_ they had been referring to her had been her old self – the one that she had been before her memory loss.

"Yes?" the ginger said, patted down herself and quickly brushed her hair with her fingers to make sure she was as presentable as she could be. Ever since her eyes had opened today she had been overwhelmed with people coming in and out of her room. Nurses, doctors, social workers, and a handful of people that had claimed to be friends or relatives of hers had stop by. Her head was still spinning from trying to remember everyone's names and faces, and she had gone as far as coming up with silly phrases to match everyone's name with their face. However, she sincerely hoped no one expected her to memorize all their names by tomorrow as she was still having a difficult time remembering her own.

"Can I come in?" she heard a male voice call from the door. She could not immediately see who it was and the voice did not sound like any of the other ones she had heard today. Her bed faced the window, and the door was on the same side as the bed. However, a small wall created a separation between the location of her bed and the corner where the door was in, and she could not for the life of her find a reason for this wall to be there other than to build suspense in her at not being immediately able to see who was walking in.

"Yes, I'm here." She said, feeling strange to say she was there when she was not sure who she was, anyway.

She waited patiently as the visitor took the five steps that separated the entrance to her vantage point from the bed and she was visibly taken aback by what she saw.

The boy – young man – before her was tall. Not as tall as the other two boys that had already come to visit her, but taller than she he absolutely was. He was wearing a black polo shirt, blue jeans and blue and black tennis shoes, and even though his clothes were not tight, she could already tell there was muscle underneath them, perhaps more than she had seen on the African American boy she had met, but less than the Asian-looking guy that had come to see her earlier today. His hands were in his pockets, his eyes partly downcast. The smile on his face was small, almost sheepish, and if it was not for the fact that he was yet to say he was in the wrong room, she would have not believed someone as handsome as he was here for her.

_Was I friends with only boys?_ She wondered, not being able to recall if anyone had said she had any friends that were of her same gender. _Was I some kind of tomboy? Jeez, that's comforting!_

The boy's eyes finally looked up to her and he stared deeply into her hazel eyes. She had never seen eyes as blue as his, as far as she knew anyway, and if he had not looked so sad, so…distraught, she would have enjoyed them that much more. "Can I get closer?" he asked and pointed to the general area of her bed.

"Sure," she said. "You're the first one to be concerned about my personal bubble," she added with a smile.

He shortened the distance between them and stared at her up and down. She felt her heart skip a beat at the way he was staring at her, as if she was a porcelain doll that had recently fallen to the floor and he was looking for chips or marks. When he finished his examination he gazed at her again. "I heard you're going to be out of here pretty soon. You, uhm, you gave us quite the scare, Pepper."

"You're calling me that, too, huh?" She tilted her head.

"Too?"

"Yeah," her eyes landed on her cast for a second before looking up at her visitor again. "Everyone has been calling me that. Well, except my dad and my mom. They called me Patricia."

"You always liked being called Pepper."

"That's what I've been told. You also used to call me that, Pepper?"

"Sometimes," he shrugged, hands returning to his pockets. "I'd sometimes call you 'Pep'?"

"Pep?" she let out a small laugh. "What was your other nickname for me 'To Bismol'?"

"What?" He repeated the entire sentence in his head and once he understood what she had said, he could not help but laugh. "I never thought of that before! And no, just 'Pep'."

She shrugged, remembering how one of the male nurses had poked fun at her with the same joke today. "I'd rather be called Patricia for now, if you don't mind."

"Uh, no, not at all," he immediately agreed but he had to admit to himself that he was already attached to the girl's nickname. Besides, he had never before called her by her birth name other than the time she had begged him to stay in the temple with her and he had…

_Not now_, he reminded himself.

"So, mind telling me who you are?"

His eyes widened for an instant and then he chuckled. "Yeah, that'd probably help with the memory loss, right?"

"Maybe, although please don't be offended if I don't remember who you are tomorrow."

"It's alright," he said and hesitated for a moment before extending his right hand to her. "I'm Tony Stark, and we used to be…best friends."

The ginger smiled and accepted the handshake, responding to him while her hand was still in his. "And I'm Patricia Potts. I hope we can be best friends again."


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Yay! You guys didn't forget about the story! Well, here's C1, sooner than anticipated because you all rock. Next update will be on the 17th. Please be advised that all chapters are going to be this long. Don't forget to review!

* * *

**Chapter 1**

She had gotten her crutches today and never before, that she could remember – and probably even if she could have – had the ginger been so excited to be given a piece of broken wood parts stuck together with plastic sticks. That was essentially what the crutches were, if you thought about it in its simplest form. For the doctor and nurse that had walked in her room an hour ago, the wooden sticks were just medical contraptions; for Pepper, the set of repurposed tree was her ticket to freedom. For the medical staff, the crutches were a scaffold for her recovering leg. For her, the crutches allowed her to hobble her way out of the room as many times as she could sneak past the nurses' radar. She even had a sketch and all.

She had been stuck to the bed for a week now since she had woken up, and it did not take her long to start feeling bored and anxious from staying in one place for so long. She had been moved around in a wheelchair here and there in order for her to bathe and had sometimes even eaten by the single window in her room, but that alone had not been enough. The summer was at its peak now that July had started, and she hated missing out on the wonderful weather outside. The sterile smell of the hospital was driving her insane, and so were the pills she had started to flush down the toilet when no one was looking. In her own words, she did not need any _stinkin' pain killers_ that only made her want to sleep.

There were also only so many soap operas, game shows and news reels she could digest, and only so many minutes she could continue talking to people she was supposed to know but did not. Rhodey had visited her twice this week – Tuesday and Thursday – and had brought her flowers both times but he had only stayed for a few minutes because his dad was in town from the Navy, and he was going to leave by the end of the week for another year. Her parents had visited her every day, and up until yesterday they had refused to tell her why they stopped by at different times; now she wished she had never asked.

Gene had stopped by once – on Friday – with some ancient Chinese remedy balm to help her scratches and bruises heal faster, and she had quickly learned that he was not a man of many words when he had remained silent while she had ranted on and on about how annoyed she was to be in the hospital. He had not been rude to her at all, but when she had asked him about his life he had either shrugged or uttered one- or two-word responses. Tony had not returned to see her yet again but he had sent her a box containing a portable video game console, a Sudoku puzzle book, and an MP3 player filled with songs of all kinds. Receiving these items had been the highlight of her Wednesday, but it was now Saturday and she had already listened to all the songs, finished the video game, and for the life of her she could not figure out how the hell the Sudoku puzzle worked.

She was going mad inside her room and even when someone visited her she suffered greatly since it was difficult carrying on a conversation with anyone who knew her life better than she did herself, and the fact that no one was giving her straight answers regarding what her life had been like before had seriously started to irk her. She understood that taking in too much information about her past life was not the best for her brain and health and that she would probably feel overwhelmed, but the nervous glances and shifting eyes she had received when she had asked how she had ended up in the hospital were irritating the fuck out of her.

So far she had learned that her father was an FBI agent who had recently been promoted to Special Services and was now to be permanently stationed in Afghanistan until further notice. She had also been told that her mother was a rather successful PR and marketing consultant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who frequently traveled around the world for her job. Her suspicions that her parents were not together anymore were confirmed yesterday when she had asked how did they make their marriage work living so far apart, and she had been told that they were divorced and had been so since she was two years of age.

That had been disappointing.

_It could've been worse_, Pepper thought as she hid behind a wall, waiting for the nurse on shift to become distracted so that she could exit the building. _I could've been adopted._

After a minute of waiting, the nurse finally sat down behind the tall reception desk to answer a phone call, so the ginger snuck her way out of the building as fast as her casted leg could take her. Thankfully for her it was too early for people to be up and about around the premises – lunchtime was not even near – so she had the outside back corridor all to herself. Yesterday she had overheard other patients talk about the existence of a small garden that was located at the back of the building – between the hospital and the cemetery – and she had promised herself to find it today and spend some time there by herself.

It took her longer than expected to arrive at the place, but the aching underarms and shortness of breath had been completely worth it. The garden was not grandeur by any stretch of the imagination, but it was not a pale-colored, four-walled room with a single window that showed the entrance to the cemetery that surrounded three-quarters of the hospital building.

_A hospital next to a cemetery; that's grim_, she thought as she found a bench and sat on it. She slowly caught her breath and dumped the crutches on the ground near her feet. She knew she would have a difficult time picking them up in a while but at this moment she really could not give a damn. All she wanted was to enjoy the warm breeze, the chirping birds, and the radiant sun above.

After a few minutes of calmness, her casted leg began to complain at the uncomfortable sitting position, so she maneuvered her way to lie across the entire bench, facing up. She closed her eyes, bent her right arm under her head as a makeshift pillow, and covered the upper half of her face with her left forearm. Eventually her mind drifted to daydreaming and the sounds around her became tuned out by her ears.

Now that she felt more relaxed than she had felt all week, she began to dissect her visitors. One by one she recapped their conversations, overanalyzing their poses, words and expressions. Her parents had been the first ones to be there when she had woken up, and other than hugging her and kissing her – and making her slightly uncomfortable by it – they had acted nothing like she expected a parent would act. Now that she had learned her parents were divorced, some of their actions made sense to her; especially the awkwardness that had always followed her question of when was she going home because, technically speaking, she did not have a home to go to after leaving the hospital.

The doctor had informed her this morning that she would be discharged next Friday, which left the redhead with five or six days to figure out what to do about her living arrangements – or lack thereof. She imagined her parents were also unsure about what to do next, especially after she had been told that even though she was only seventeen years of age, she was now emancipated due to having finished high school as the custody papers stated and the judge required. For all technical purposes, the girl could easily discharge herself at any point on Friday without having to notify anyone else other than the medical staff, then just walk out the door and never look back.

In all honesty, the idea of just leaving a life she did not even remember anyway sounded rather tempting to Pepper. Her parents were already not together, and she was sure her friends – or the ones that called themselves that – had hectic lives of their own. Rhodey had said that he was going to the Air Force Academy next month and Gene had said that he was returning to China after she was discharged. What Gene did in China and how she had ended up meeting a guy who was clearly not housed in the United States was still unknown to her.

Then there was Tony, the guy who had told her he was her best friend and was yet to show his face again since last week. Granted, he had sent her some awesome items to pass the time, but she would think that someone who claimed to be your best friend would have jumped for joy at seeing you survive...well, whatever it was that she had made it out alive from. However, the boy had acted rather hesitant around her and other than the look of concern he had given her when he had eyed her condition with scrutinizing eyes, his actions did not support the fact that he had been her best friend.

_Why would my best friend be a guy, anyway? Ugh, I was probably one of those loser girls with no friends and these three guys just feel sorry for me. This sucks!_

However, this realization did not _suck_ as much as knowing you had no place to live. Moving to Afghanistan with her father was not an option, which left her the option of moving to Pittsburgh with a total stranger. Well, not a stranger in the sense that the woman was her mother, but with her job requiring her to travel all over the place, what was Pepper supposed to do alone at home? Besides, she had gotten the impression that she had spent more of her life with her father than with her mother, meaning that if she had been given the choice to move to the Middle East with Virgil, she would have jumped into doing just that in a heartbeat.

The other option – which was completely out of her reach – was to be on her own, hope that she had some marketable skills to get a job and work her way through college. Her parents had assured her that she had a college fund available for her use, but she had also been told she had never applied to any colleges before her _accident_ took place.

_Yup, a loser, that's who I was; a loser with only boys as friends and no interest in getting an education. Can my life be any worse?_

Even with the memory loss, she still knew that she had poorly prepared for her future, and she could not fathom what had kept her from making these rather important decisions before they were due. Everyone had been careful not to let her know much about her life other than she was a normal person living a normal life until something terrible had happened to her. Then again, the people she had met so far did not seem normal to her, so she was left with no option but to question the validity of the statement coming from them.

What terrible thing could have happened to her to land her in a hospital? Had she been doing drugs and overdosed? Had she been drinking and driving and had caused an accident? Had she tried killing herself? It would not surprise her if she did, to be honest, as the little she had learned from her life before her incident had occurred made her sound rather dull.

_I'm a lost cause_, she mused to herself. "Maybe I should just run away. No one would miss me, anyway."

"I would miss you."

Her eyes snapped open to darkness, and it took her a second to remember she was covering her eyelids with her hand. She then lifted her arm from her face and pushed up the upper half of her body by resting her weight on her elbows and looked left and right for the owner of the voice.

"Behind you," she heard him say before he walked around to stand by the front of the bench and stared down at her. "Although," he continued, "I don't think I have to worry about you trying to run away. You wouldn't get that far," he pointed to her injured leg.

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him, feeling slightly annoyed with his arrogant-looking face. Who did this guy think he was, making fun of her like that? She did not even remember him and he knew it. Why did he think he could just talk to her like that? "I got all the way over here, didn't I? And no one has come looking for me yet."

"I did," he gave her a one-sided shrug. "And I'm here to foil any plans of yours to run away."

The small irritation she had felt before only increased with his cocky-grin. "How did you find me?" She asked and forced herself to sit up sideways on the bench, or as much as she could with her casted leg still extended over the seat.

"I'm your best friend," he shrugged again and then pulled out something small from his pants pocket. "And, you kinda forgot your sketch for world domination under the pillow," he added with an even larger smile and showed her the small napkin where she had doodled her sketch to leave the hospital unnoticed to find the garden she was currently in.

"Oh," she said and then snatched the napkin from him with a full glare now. "Is it your job as the best friend to search under my pillows or is that just a weird fetish of yours I should be careful about?"

He chuckled lightly. "One among many, but this time I did it because I was actually worried that something bad had happened to you when I walked into your room and you weren't there, Pep."

"Patricia."

"What?"

"My name is Patricia."

"Oh, right," he pursed his lips. "Sorry; habit."

He looked down at his shoes as if he was thinking of what to say next, but the ginger beat him to the next topic. "Thank you for the distractions you sent, by the way. You went a little bit overboard but I had fun with them. When do you need them back?"

Tony was taken aback. "Need them back? They're yours to keep, Pep –uh, Patricia." Her real name sounded so foreign to him.

"What? You're serious?"

Tony shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, it's just, uhm," she struggled with her words and rested her right forearm on the back of the bench to help support her weight. "I mean, I get the Sudoku book, but who gives a video game console and a fancy MP3 player as gifts for just being in the hospital?"

"I do?" he half-stated, half-asked. "I've spent my fair share of time in hospitals and I know how boring it can get to lay in a bed for days with nothing else to do."

"When have you _ever_ been to a hospital? Are you sick?"

"I, uhm," he placed his left hand on his chest and patted it twice. "I had a heart condition for a few years, but now I'm cured."

"Cured? Did you get a transplant?"

"Something like that, yes."

"Huh," she eyed him up and down. "You seem healthy enough to me right now."

"Yup. I've been out of the hospital for a while."

"I see," she said with another glance over his features. Her narrowed eyes landed on his chest as if trying to imagine what condition he might have had, and part of her wanted her brain to remember if she had ever known what it was so she did not have to ask. Her eyes then traveled to his blue ones and they silently stared at each other for an eternity. She could not immediately tell how she knew, but it appeared to her that he was holding back on saying something important to her. She maintained his stare for a while longer, daring him to just come out and say whatever he wanted to say, but she finally looked away when she began feeling nervous at the way he was staring back at her. "So, are you here to take me back? Is there a ransom for me?"

"Not at all." He shook his head. "No one knows you left. The doctors probably think you're still in bed. It's visiting hours, anyway, so if we get you back to your room before the time is up, they'll just assume you were with me the whole time."

"I don't want to go back yet," she challenged and he lifted his arms in a peace-making gesture.

"Wasn't planning on forcing you."

"Good," she said and then stared at the space behind her on the bench. "So, are you just gonna stand there the whole time you're here or are you getting ready to leave?"

Tony nodded once to show her he had understood her intended question, gave her his thanks with a wave of his hand and then immediately sat on the bench, next to her. Her current position had her giving her back to him, but she did not want to move around too much until she had to leave. Tony was careful not bumping into her despite how much he was longing to hug her knowing he had no choice but to control his eager hands. "Do you want me to help you shift?"

Pepper eyed her body for a moment as she thought about letting Tony touch her. It was not as if he seemed as if he was going to take advantage of the situation; he in fact had been the only one to mind how close he was to her. Yet, for some reason, she felt uneasy about the thought of having his hands on her. She did not want to stay in her current uncomfortable position, however, and she immediately recognized that she would have to suck it up and ask for assistance from him in some fashion after all. "No, but maybe you can, uhm, rest your back against mine? Just so that I'm not putting so much effort on sitting up, you know?"

"I can do that," he said and did as told. He turned in place and rested his back against hers. He kept his left leg extended over the bench, and with his right leg bent over the edge of the bench and foot firmly planted on the ground he supported his weight and hers. "Better?"

"Much," she admitted and felt her muscles relax. She pushed her back closer to his and even rested her head slightly onto his. She was pushing her luck and her boundaries by doing so, but her back was screaming for some relief. "So, what brings you here?"

"I came to donate my corneas."

"Really?" Her head snapped to her left and she furrowed her brows.

He chuckled and she felt the shaking of his shoulders through her back. "Of course not! I'm obviously joking. I'm here to see you."

"Oh."

It was much easier telling her these things when she was not staring directly at him. And, unbeknownst to him, she also noticed it was easier for her to talk to him when his eyes were not boring into her in that indescribable way he had done so up to now. She was not sure what feeling she was seeing in his sapphire orbs, but both times it had made her chest hurt and her palms sweat.

"Oh, yeah," she continued. "Visiting hours, right?" She began playing with the napkin in her hands.

"Yeah. I'm sorry for not coming to see you this week. I've been kinda busy with work."

"Work?" her ears perked up. "You have a job?"

"Yeah."

"How old are you? What do you do?"

"I'm 18. And, I'm a…technology specialist. I run a high-tech computer lab."

"Tech specialist? I guess I should've known you're a techie guy with the MP3 player and the game. But running a lab sounds _so_ boring."

"It can be sometimes," he admitted, leaving out the part that it was boring mostly because her talkative self was not around. "But overall it ain't so bad."

"If you say so," she said more to herself than to him and remained silent for a while. This was how it had been with most of her visitors: a few words were spoken here and there; an exchange of some meaningless chit-chat occurred, and then an awkward silence followed. Tony, however, was not done talking.

"So, uh, any word on when you're getting out of here."

"My parole officer said I can leave on Friday."

"Parole officer?" he chuckled again, and this time the resonance of his laughter transferring to her via their touching backs was kind of welcoming for her. "Is it really that bad here?"

"It's not bad. It's awful," she said in an exaggerated, high-pitched voice despite the smile that had appeared on her face at hearing him laugh.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Patricia," he said in an earnest tone. "I should've visited you sooner."

"I didn't expect you to," she lied. Truth was that the five minutes he had given her the first day she had woken up had been the most eventful of her entire week, mostly because he had seem as the only one that understood how out of place she had felt that day. She had been disappointed that he had not stopped by again until now, but she blamed it on the fact that he had set the bar rather high when he had gloated having the title of _best friend_. "People are busy, right?" she dropped the crumpled napkin on her lap and began twisting her hair. "Plus, you have a job. Even best friends have to spend time apart."

"We usually didn't," he said, and her hair twisting suddenly stopped. There was something in the way he had said those words that made her feel uneasy again, and that was the one feeling she hated having right now. "I promise I'll visit you more often this week."

"Don't feel pressured to do so. I'm going to be out in a few days, anyway," she resumed her hair twisting and looked up to the sky.

"I'll still be here unless…"

"Unless, what?" She let go of her hair.

"Unless you don't want me here."

The way in which his voice had trailed at the end of his statement made her feel guilty and she bit her lower lip to keep back her exhale. Maybe this young man was telling her the truth; maybe he was or had been her best friend and his odd actions were just a result of him not being sure how to handle the uncommon situation she was facing. Best friends or not, no one knew how to act around someone who had recently woken up from a coma and had lost their memory in the process, right? It was not as if there was a course or a book that would be applicable to all memory loss situations, right?

"I wouldn't mind seeing you, but don't feel obligated to show up," she finally said in an effort to put his mind at ease. She really did not know him that well yet, but she still felt somewhat liable for helping reestablish the friendship everyone had told her she and Tony used to have.

Thinking about it more, she could positively understand how this situation was difficult not just for her but for everyone else as well. She had suddenly forgotten all about these people who cared for her, and while her only current concern was reconstructing her lost life, her family and friends had lost a daughter and a friend. The person they had all once known had, for all practical purposes, died when she lost her memory and in return they had gotten a person who did not even know who she was herself. The ginger could not imagine what it would feel like to one day find out her father or mother had forgotten who she was, but she did have an idea of what it would feel like to lose a friend. She could sense how distraught her friends felt now, and she could definitely see in Tony how much her lack of memory affected him.

"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't try to make it easier on you, huh?" The inventor asked, breaking Pepper's discouraging thoughts.

She smirked. "The kind who sends me a Sudoku puzzle book with no instructions."

"What?"

"I haven't used it. I don't get it."

"What don't you get?"

"What I am supposed to do with it."

"Oh! I, just…I thought…you used to love doing those puzzles before you, well, you know when."

"Did I?" she frowned. "I don't remember much of anything, really. And no one wants to tell me what the hell happened to me. It's, like, some great secret or something like that."

"Hn," was his only response and he readjusted his back.

"You're going to keep me in the dark, too? Aren't you? I thought you were my best friend."

"I am," he said without missing a beat, looking down at his lap. "That's why I don't want to tell you what happened."

"It couldn't have been that bad, right? Just spill it, OK? What was it? Amphetamines, liquor, crack?"

"What?" He spat, and had she not needed his back to support herself, he would have spun around to face her. He did, however, shift his head to his right in an effort to see as much of her face as he could. "What are you talking about?"

"Possible reasons why no one wants to tell me what happened to me. I was watching the news yesterday and they were talking about a kid who tried killing himself with drugs. That could've been me, right?"

"No! You'd never do anything stupid like that!"

"Then what did I do? What could I have possibly done that is unspeakable?"

Tony sighed and shook his head. "It's…it was nothing _you_ did, Pepper."

"Patricia."

"Patricia," he said. "Something was _done_ to you."

"Oh," she responded and narrowed her eyes. This she had not expected. "Was it…was it someone I knew?"

"Yes," he admitted and they became quiet again. Pepper pulled herself away from his back and then hunched her back as she considered her next words.

"What happened to the person?"

"Locked away."

"Was it," she gulped. "Was it my boyfriend?"

Tony was glad he was giving his back to her, still. "No."

"Did I even have a boyfriend?"

Tony closed his eyes. "No."

"Ever?"

"You dated a guy in school, but nothing serious ever came out of it. You actually broke it off with him a few days before it happened."

"Why did I break it up?"

"You didn't like him like that anymore."

"Oh. I guess, I guess that's a good reason. How did he take it?"

"He was OK with it."

Pepper scoffed. "No wonder it never got serious. I probably didn't like him as much and he didn't either."

"Maybe."

"Wouldn't you know, though? Did I ever talk to you about him?"

"Sometimes," he shrugged. "You weren't very specific with the details, though."

"Not even with you?"

_Especially with me_, he wanted to say but bit his tongue. "I, the guy, he wasn't very bright, so me and Rhodey used to tease you about it."

"Ah, I see. But you guys approved of him."

"More or less."

"OK, so he must have not been that bad if my friends were OK with him."

"You can say that."

Silence surrounded them again as she took her time internalizing the new information he had given her. It was not as much information as she wanted to know this very moment, but she had at least confirmed that there was a line of communication open between her and this particular boy, and other than not giving names or dates, he seemed keen to share some of her forgotten past with her.

"Tony," she began saying after another long moment of silence between them, and the sound of his name coming from her after so long made his heart skip a beat. "Did I almost die?"

It was his turn to think about his response. A quick flash of memories invaded his mind, remembering the moment he had found her and thought her dead. He then remembered how cold and clammy her body had felt in his arms, and how they had barely gotten out of the submarine with their lives. He then saw her struggling for her life on the operating table, and remembered the countless nights he had spent by her bedside, holding her hand as he silently prayed and begged her to open her eyes. It had only been ten days ago that he had last kissed her forehead goodnight before he had left the hospital at night, but to him the images seemed like distant memories or remnants of a horrible, endless and repetitive dream. "Yes, Patricia. You almost died."

_There it is again_, she told herself. _That tone in his voice._

She cleared her throat and slid her body from one end of the bench to the front so that she now sat on it like it was meant to be. Tony mimicked her action and they both looked down at the ground in silence. She then lifted her face to stare at the cemetery before them, and it did not escape Tony that they were sitting on the same bench he had been sitting on when Rhodey had come to tell him the news he already knew about Pepper's state.

"I'm hungry," she finally said. "Want to go eat with me? I heard the cafeteria of the hospital is serving the questionable casserole dish today."

Tony laughed aloud and shook his head. "You got it wrong, Potts. Questionable casserole was the menu yesterday. Today's opossum chops."

"EW!" she snickered. "Was the opossum at least alive when it was caught?"

Tony shrugged. "I think it was road kill, or maybe it was the raccoon stew that had been road kill. I'm a little fuzzy on the details."

"Shut up!" she playfully hit his right shoulder and he smiled. "But seriously," she continued. "Do you want to go eat something?" She was starting to see why she had hung around him; he seemed to have the same type of humor as she.

"I do, but nothing from here."

"Well, what do you suggest?"

"It depends," he stared at her.

"On what?" she stared back.

"On how much reach you have with your house arrest ankle bracelet," he said with a smile and pointed at her crutches, referencing her earlier joke about having a parole officer.

_Yup, he's definitely someone I'd like to have around. _She thought with a smile. "Well, I just started using them today, but I think I can probably survive a block or two."

"A block or two? That's not gonna cut it if we want to escape this joint. How about five blocks?" he emphasized his point by showing the five fingers on his left hand.

"Five?" she threw her hands in the air. "Nope. That's too much. No can do, dude."

"Well, what if you do two, and I carry you for the other three?"

"Carry me? For three blocks?" she looked at him up and down. "I can tell you lift weights, Tony, but I don't think you can carry me that far."

Tony smirked. "I've done it before."

"Really? When?" She crossed her arms over her chest, a skeptic look on her face.

"Whenever you needed me to."

She eyed him suspiciously as if waiting for him to say he was just joking but when he kept staring at her without as much as blinking, she sighed. "Fine, but don't blame me if your back breaks."

"I won't," he said with a smile and stood up. He bent down and grabbed her crutches from the ground with his left hand and was about to hand them to her but she surprised him by grabbing his right hand with her left. He immediately reacted and helped her stand up from the bench and once she had her balance he helped her grab the crutches. "There's a small restaurant that way," he pointed to his right. "Race you there?" he added with a smirk.

"Hardy-har-har," she rolled her eyes and hit him lightly with one of her crutches. "Just lead the way. And don't let anyone see us leave. They'll drag my butt back inside."

"Yes, ma'am!" He said and they walked side by side for two blocks, and then Tony made sure he kept his promise and carried her for the rest of the path.

xxxXXXxxx

"So, what are you going to do, then?" Tony asked the ginger and waited for her to swallow the large bite of pancakes in her mouth. "What have your parents suggested?"

Pepper washed down the food in her mouth with half of her glass of milk and then wiped her face with a napkin. "They haven't suggested anything. I think they've got no clue what to do either."

"So, what do you want to do?" He asked before taking a sip of his orange juice.

Pepper shrugged and paused her eating for a moment, her eyes gazed out the window by the booth they were sitting in. "I'm not sure, to be honest with you. It hadn't really come up until yesterday and I haven't had a lot of time to think about it."

"What are your options?" he dropped his used napkin on his plate to symbolize he was done with his meal.

"Pittsburgh or not Pittsburgh," she replied and continued cutting her pancakes into bite sizes. "But I'd rather not move in with my mom. I think I'd probably burden her with her job."

"Well, you'll probably end up living in a college campus for most of the time after that, anyway."

"Huh," she stopped the fork midway to her mouth. "I hadn't thought of that. That's…that's actually true."

He shrugged and let her chew and swallow her next bite. Pepper's eyes gazed outside again as if considering the option and then frowned. "Well, that solves the problem if: a) I get admitted into a college; and b) If they let me move in next Friday."

"You have very good grades, Patricia. You'll have no trouble getting admitted, but we have to hurry up if you want to get admitted before the late enrollment deadline."

The ginger stared at his face and arched her left eyebrow. "We?"

"Yes, we. We're friends, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess, but…"

"No buts, Potts. You're going to let me help you."

"Why?"

"Because that's how it always worked. We helped each other no matter what; this is no different."

"Other than I don't know if you're telling me the truth. I technically don't know you, right?"

"Have you asked anyone about me?"

"Uh, yes, I have. Why?"

"Have they told you not to talk to me? To stay away from me?"

"No," she admitted, remembering she had actually been told the quite opposite, especially by Gene. _"If you can only trust one person, it should be Stark," _he had told her when she had asked about where to start rebuilding her life.

"Well, then. You've got no reason to think I'd lie to you."

"I suppose…" she sighed. "Yeah, I guess so. But, what do I do in the mean time? Maybe I can live with my mom until I move to college. It'd only be a couple of months, max, and then I'd be out of her hair until the holidays and summer break."

"Or maybe you can live with me," he blurted out before he realized how his statement would sound to her. Pepper narrowed her eyes at him, crossed her arms over her chest and rested her back against the booth. The waitress appeared during their moment of silence to leave the check and Tony grabbed it immediately and placed his card inside the small pocket before handing it back to the older woman. "Thanks," he told the waitress to politely dismiss her before returning his gaze to the wary redhead.

"What would my parents think if I told them you offered your house to me?" Pepper asked, trying in her own way to measure his reaction and words to gage whether the boy before her was as trustworthy as he and everyone else claimed him to be.

"They'd probably say 'go for it'."

"Reeeeallyyyy?" she said in a disbelieving tone accompanied by a roll of her eyes.

"Yup," he nodded. "Pep, we've been friends for a long time. You've spent weekends at my house before."

"Did I?" She ignored his use of her nickname for now.

"Yes, you did, and at Rhodey's house, too, for that matter."

"Huh," her pose became more relaxed. It could very well be possible that she had spent weekends at his and Rhodey's homes if they were as close as everyone indicated the three of them had been, but the current situation was more precarious than a one-time stay. Although, she could not deny she was desperate to find a solution that did not entail her living on the streets or having to live with her mother who would never be home anyway. Perhaps the uncomfortable solution was worth a shot if Tony was being frank about his offer. "A weekend is fine and all, but this is _two_ months, Tony. What would your dad say?"

"He'd say it's fine, too. He's wanted to come and see you at the hospital, actually, but we thought it would be too much for so many strangers to show up before you're ready for it."

"Is that why Rhodey's mom hasn't shown up since the day I woke up?"

"Yup. Roberta's been like a mom to the both of us. She was worried sick about you; still is."

"Speaking of which," she began and uncrossed her arms. "What would your mom say about me living with you for two months? Would she be OK with it?"

Tony gave her a lopsided smile. "I don't have a mom, Pepper – Patricia. Sorry. My mom died when I was four."

"Oh," the redhead looked down at her plate. "I, I'm sorry, Tony. I didn't know…or, I forgot, whatever."

"It's alright. It was a long time ago."

"Still, I, I feel like…"

"Thank you for your visit, Mr. Stark," the waitress interrupted Pepper and handed the card, a pen and the new ticket to Tony. "How's Iron Man doing? We haven't seen him since the aliens showed up to try to eat us."

Tony's eyes landed on Pepper's shocked and confused face before clearing his throat and quickly signing the ticket with a large tip for the waitress. He then shoved the ticket back to her and when her eyes saw the amount of the tip, she completely forgot about her question.

"He's doing fine, thank you. He's on vacation," he hastily answered before returning to face Pepper. "Ready to go?"

"Uhm, yeah, I guess."

The waitress ran back to the cashier to make sure her tip was tallied and Tony took the opportunity to stand up, grabbed the crutches and helped Pepper stand up from the booth. He purposefully avoided her questioning gaze and led her out of the restaurant and once outside he took in a deep breath and slowly walked next to her, feeling how her eyes were digging holes in his head.

They remained quiet for the two blocks she had agreed to walk on crutches, and as soon as they crossed the street he stopped and lowered his body for her to climb onto his back. She hesitated for an instant but after a loud sigh she finally crawled onto his back with his help. Just as before, she surrounded his neck with her right arm but not tight enough to hurt him, and with her left hand she held the crutches up in the air. He then snaked his arms around her legs, making sure not to further injure her leg and began slowly walking back to the hospital.

They continued their silent trek for another block until he felt Pepper's chin rest on his left shoulder, sending shivers down his spine at her closeness and her warm breath near his ear. "Aliens? Really?"

"Yup," was the only word that came to mind as he tried to calm down.

"I guess telling me everything at once really _is_ too much for me to handle, after all."

"I'm afraid so," he nodded. "But I will tell you, little by little. I promise."

"OK. But can you skip the part where the aliens tried to eat us?"

He chuckled. "They didn't try to eat us, just…take over…or kill us..."

"I take it that since we're still here, we won?"

He smirked. "We surely did."

"And this Iron Man person did it? He helped, somehow?"

"A lot of people did."

"And you know him, right?"

"What?"

"You know Iron Man. The waitress asked you about him. What is he? A wrestler or a ninja or something like that? How do you know him?"

"Same way you do."

"I know him? Really?"

"Yup, everyone knows Iron Man."

"Oh," she snickered and shook her head. "You're right. I mean, if he helped save the world, who wouldn't know him, right?"

"Right," he said and decided to leave it at that for now. "Did you like the food?"

"Yes," she nodded. "It was really good. I owe you, though. I will pay you back, somehow."

"You don't have to."

"I didn't say I have to. I said I'm going to. I want to. You've been really nice with me even though I really haven't been nice to you."

"That's kinda how it worked before, too," he smirked.

"Really? Was I always this mean to you while you were always nice?"

"Oh, no, I didn't mean it like that. I was mean to you and Rhodey sometimes, too, but we all stuck around anyway. That's how our friendship worked."

"Ah," she said and sighed. "Well, I'm going to pay you back."

"If you insist, you can, but can I suggest a way to pay me back?"

"Sure," she asked and then realized they had finally arrived at the entrance of the hospital. He helped her climb down from his back and she adjusted her crutches under her arms before looking up at him. "How?"

"What?"

"How, pay you back. You said you had a suggestion."

"Oh, yeah," he scratched the back of his head, motioned for her to begin walking inside the building and he walked next to her. "You can do me a favor and we can call it even."

"What favor?" she alternated between staring at him and down at the floor to make sure she did not trip until they arrived at the elevator and he pressed the button for her floor. He waited until the doors closed and taking advantage that no one was around, he began telling her what he had in mind.

"I know you want to know everything about what happened to you. I know you want to remember everything you forgot…"

"I hope you're not about to tell me I'm never finding out," she glared at him.

"Of course not! It wouldn't be fair. If you want to know, you have a right to know."

"OK," she visible relaxed. "So, what are you saying, then?"

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, and he let the ginger walk out first. Her room was not that far away from the elevator, and she was so concentrated on whatever Tony was about to tell her that she did not realize her parents were sitting in the waiting area near her room. They had been searching for Pepper for the past couple of hours and no one in the hospital knew anything about her other than Tony Stark having dropped by to see her and only because he had signed the visitor's log.

His eyes briefly landed on their worried faces and he made a gesture with his hand to let them know she was alright, and the two adults breathed a sigh of relief. Pepper, still unaware of their presence, walked inside her room and Tony followed suit, closed the door behind him and walked over to her bed where she was now sitting. Her eyes stared at him expectantly which only pained him as it reminded him that he had to leave very soon. He truly wanted to continue spending time with her, but he could no longer stay after this. He had told his dad he would move in to his new office in Stark International today so that next week Stark Solutions opened operations in its own laboratory and office within the premises of his father's company, and if he did not keep his promise his dad was going to annoy the hell out of him all week.

"OK, just, listen to me before you say no, alright?"

"Alright," she said and waited for him to speak. He remained standing up in front of her, and she continued sitting on the edge of her bed, feet dangling over the floor.

"Let's make a deal. I promise I will tell you, every day, a little bit of what you want or need to know, but you have to promise me that you won't go and search for answers on your own. I promise I'll break it to you slower and in pieces, but only if you don't ask more than you should know right away. I promise that you will eventually know everything about everything, but I won't do it if you start meddling around and getting the wrong idea from questionable sources."

Pepper lost herself in his eyes, looking for the smallest hint that he was lying to her, but when he continued to keep her stare without blinking she sighed loudly and looked away. She knew it would be much easier and faster to just run to a computer as soon a she was out of the hospital and find out everything she wanted to know, but based on the little information she had learned from him today she was not sure if she wanted to know everything right away. So far, Tony had been the only one to tell her more about her past than everyone else combined, so she knew he was willing to talk to her about whatever had occurred to her and that was a start. She was not happy that it had to be on his terms, but she figured that it was better than finding out something terrible about her past in a way that would make her hate her life even more.

"OK, alright, yes," she finally said and scratched the side of her head.

"Yes, we have a deal?" he asked and extended his hand to her. She smirked and rolled her eyes but still shook his hand.

"Yes, fine. We'll do it your way. But if I find out you've been holding back on me, the deal is off." She pointed a finger at him with her free hand.

"Fair enough."

Their hands remained linked for a few more seconds, and she eyed them with curious eyes, especially when he shifted his hand so that instead of just holding hers, he was rubbing her knuckles with his thumb. The gesture seemed familiar – even comforting – to her but he ended it before she could really place what she was feeling and why.

"Well, visiting hours are almost over, and I saw your parents out there so I guess that's my cue."

"What? You're leaving already?"

"Already? I've been here for two hours!"

"What?" she eyed the clock on the wall and was taken aback when she confirmed his words. "Whoa! I mean, I didn't think, I…" she sighed. "Yeah, OK. You're free to go," she said with a smile and waved him away.

"Thank you, your Majesty," he bowed down to her, making her laugh aloud.

"Dork!" she giggled. "Thank you for coming to see me, Tony. It was…fun," she titled her head and held onto the edge of the bed with her hands.

"You're welcome. I had fun, too." He said and looked down at his watch, wondering what it would take for him to be able to make time slow down for them. He then looked up at her and gave her a warm smile before he waved to her and began walking over to the exit before he changed his mind and just moved in to the hospital with her.

"Well, I better get going. I'll see you later, Patricia." He said with finality as he reached the door, and when he placed his hand on the doorknob, he heard her call out to him.

"_Tony, wait!"_

"Yeah?" He asked from his position by the door, his presence blocked by the small wall between them.

_"It's Pepper,"_ she said with a small voice and he could not help but smile. _"For you, the name's Pepper, since you seem to like it so much," _she repeated, louder this time.

Tony closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "See you Monday, Pepper."

_"See you Monday, Tony," _she told him and he finally stepped out, giving her parents the opportunity to talk to their daughter about whatever it was they had in store for her today.

* * *

**A/N:** See? I can end a chapter without it being a cliffhanger. I just…well, they are not as interesting as the ones that ARE cliffhangers, right? What do you think? Like it so far? Next chapter will up next week, so you will have one week between chapters to read them! And yeah, don't forget to review!


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Can I say "Thank you!"? I know I said I'd have this up by tomorrow, but since I got a really nice review group last time, here is the next chapter early again :)

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Tony sprinted his way down the entrance of the building and rushed inside the closing elevator despite the glares he received from the other people who had already waited long enough for its arrival. He had gotten stuck on an Iron Man mission and had almost missed the afternoon visiting hours at the hospital, so he had flown here directly from the other side of the city with the single intent of making it to her room on time. He had visited Pepper on Monday as he had promised, but he had not been able to see her on Tuesday due to a business meeting his dad had dragged him into, so it was very important for him to see her today even if it was for just a few minutes; even if it was just to get an answer to the official proposition he had made to her on Monday night.

He impatiently tapped his right foot on the carpeted floor as he waited for the elevator to come to her level, and as soon as the doors opened to it he pushed his way out, mumbling apologies to anyone he hit in his mad dash to his destination. He barely stopped long enough at the reception counter to say hi to the nurses and sign his name on the visitor's log before he ran to her door. He knocked on it twice and took a moment to catch his breath and calm his anxiously beating heart, and when he heard her voice welcoming him inside, he did not waste any more time and went in.

He adjusted his clothes and ran a hand through his unruly hair to fix up the mishaps wearing a suit of armor could have on his appearance and by the time his presence was visible to her, he felt presentable enough. He was wearing blue jeans and a dark brown t-shirt with a tanned dress shirt underneath sticking out from the sleeves, the hem and the collar. He wore matching brown suede shoes and belt, and his armor backpack rested across his chest. He then smiled and waved his hand at her, hoping that she would not be upset for his tardiness and near-absence today. "Hey, Pep! Sorry I'm late."

"Better late than never," she returned the smile and waved him over to her with her hand, effectively erasing from his mind any fear of retaliation. He dropped his armor backpack by the entrance and then looked left and right searching for the guest chair. Once he found it he walked over to it, picked it up and then placed it in reverse by the left side of her bed so that the back of the chair faced his chest. He then sat in it, his forearms resting on the back of it and he stared up at the television in her room. She was watching the daily news for a change, and they were currently talking about Iron Man's latest mission; the one that had made him late for this encounter with his redhead.

They remained silent for a few minutes as they both watched the recorded images of the mission. The quiet moments between them were no longer as awkward as they had been before despite hanging around together again for only a few days after weeks – _months_, of not hearing her voice and seeing her hazel eyes staring back at him. For Pepper, her life was as long as the blink of an eye, so adjusting to seeing or hearing from him almost every day was an easy feat for her. Tony, however, felt as if he was living both of their lives for them and it was now starting to take a toll on him, especially in moments like these when they were alone and all he wanted to do was to scoop her up in his arms and kiss her senseless until the break of dawn.

Oh, how he missed her lips on his and the way her arms clung onto him when they kissed! He longed for holding her hand and caressing her face with the back of his. He wanted to rest his face on hers and inhale her scent from her hair and neck. He wanted to hold her tightly in his arms as he heard her go on and on about something so inconsequential it did not merit wasting time in dwelling on it, but with Pepper all inconsequential situations became matters of life and death, and the way she threw her entire self into expressing what was in her mind made him fall even harder for her.

But above everything else, he wanted to tell her he loved her, even if she would not say it back. How could she, anyway? She did not even remember that she did at one point, and had he not been the asshole he had been when he had run off from the Temple, he would had been graced with hearing those three little words straight from her conscious form. Hearing them from a hologram had been bittersweet, but he still played her message every now and then if just to remind himself there was still hope for them…_maybe_, even if just as friends.

_Two months_, he thought bitterly. That had been how long he had been without her in one way, shape or form.

Even if their dating stage had only lasted for two measly days, Tony had already been head over heels for her way before that; he had just not known it until it was too late: until he had pushed her away, until she had left him; until Whitney had made her suffer to almost her last breath. Crazy or not, Whitney knew what she had been doing to him when she took Pepper from him, and even though the inventor hated acknowledging the fact, Rhodey had been right all along.

"_I can't believe she did all this!" Tony yelled. "All of this to get back at me? Why didn't she just attack me, huh? I'd let her break my arm if she had wanted to! Why did she have to take it out on Pepper?"_

_ "You know why, dude," Rhodey reminded the genius. "Would it have really affected you that much if Whitney had attacked you directly? Anyone who knows you and Pepper – even Stane knew – that to get even with you all they have to do is hurt her."_

Tony bit back a groan at the memory.

Despite her situation, Tony sometimes envied the fact that Pepper had forgotten all the horrible things that had landed them both here. She had forgotten the suffering he had put her through. The suffering Whitney had put her through. She had forgotten the six weeks she had been in captivity, and the two weeks she had been in a coma. All of those horrible incidents and their gory details were not part of her memories and practically blank mind, and instead they had made a cozy residence in the inventor's heart and soul. They would at times come out to play with him at night, making him wake up in a cold sweat, a rapid beating heart, and sometimes even tears running down his cheeks. The images of what Whitney had done to Pepper would forever haunt him, and as much as it pained him to not have her remember how much she meant to him, it was best that the ginger did not have to experience the trauma he was experiencing himself for her.

"What took you so long?" her voice pulled him away from his reverie. "Another meeting?" She asked him when a commercial interrupted the newscast of Iron Man's heroic feat.

"Yeah," he lied and was never so relieved to know that the media treated Tony Stark and Iron Man as two separate entities even though they were one and the same. He had not even requested it to be like this; the press had just taken it upon themselves to give the superhero his own set of news separate from the man behind the mask, and he had no doubt it was due to the fact that they could make more money by selling stories of two individuals rather than just one despite the common knowledge that they were the same. "Now that I'm done with school, work has really picked up."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Tony, you work in a tech lab. How hard can your job get? Did someone forget to plug in their printer and was pissed off because they couldn't get it to print? Or did some idiot forget to put ink or paper in a copier and went bonkers when they couldn't get it to work?"

"My job is a little bit more intricate than that, _Pepper_." He scoffed but still gave her a grin.

"Oh, I'm sure," she said in a sarcastic tone and between giggles. "I bet you're probably just the mail guy at this tech job of yours."

"Mail guy? Psh, as if, Potts! I run the lab, remember? I'm the man."

Pepper threw her head back in laughter and the inventor was basking every single second of it. "Are you, the man, really? Are you the one who signs the paychecks? The one who calls the shots? The one who is allowed to show up whenever he feels like it? The one who is allowed to have visitors when you're not cleaning up someone's porn-infested computer?"

Tony chuckled. "Porn-infested? You're awful, Pep," he shook his head. "And, yes, I _am_ all of those things, I'll have you know. I call the shots and sign the paychecks and show up whenever I damned well please. AND I _can_ have visitors whenever I feel like it."

"Really?" she asked with a disbelieving smirk and a tilt of her head. "Could I maybe come down and visit you at work one day? I'd like to see what you do for a living, even if it sounds as boring as watching paint dry."

"I'm sure I can arrange for you to come down and watch paint dry with me. It'll be fun. Maybe we can even do a double coat of paint." He smiled and patted the side of her bed with his right hand.

"Are you serious?" She asked in a more thoughtful tone. "You can actually do that? Would they really let you bring me over for a day?"

"A day, two, a whole week. Yup, I can." He nodded and returned his eyes to the screen.

"Sweet!" she said with a bright smile he immediately mimicked before her eyes returned to the television again when the newscast resumed after the commercial break. "So, this Iron Man guy, he's something else."

"What do you mean?" he asked with the straightest face he could muster.

"Well, other than obviously being a badass, which is good to be one if you're going to be risking your life like that, he's the most arrogant jerk I've ever heard of in my life."

Tony, who by now had been precariously tipping his chair forward, nearly fell down with her words. "What did you say? How can you even make a statement like that?"

"What do you mean how can I? Look at him," she pointed to the screen where Iron Man was waving at the cameras. "Yeah, he stopped those guys from robbing city hall but, come on! He doesn't have to act all mighty about it. Like I said, most full-of-himself guy I've ever seen. It's so irritating."

Tony scoffed. "Pepper, first of all, this is the first time you've even seen the guy in action; he's actually pretty down-to-Earth. And, second of all, you only know, like, five people from the billions of humans alive."

"What are you, his boyfriend?" She spat and frowned. "You don't have to get all pissy about it; it's just MY opinion of the armored jerk. Besides, I'm well aware of my issue, thank you very much. You don't have to remind me of it!"

"Whoa, Pepper! How did this turn into an argument?" he lifted his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm not here to fight with you. I'm here to spend time with you. Let's not do this, alright?"

Her narrowed eyes eventually softened and she sighed. "Yeah, I'm sorry, Tony. I'm just so bored out of my mind and ready to leave this place. Besides, you're probably right; he's probably not that bad once you get to know him. I mean, he did save the planet, right? Honestly, though, I'd much rather bump into War Machine one of these days; he sounds really cute."

"What?" he could feel his right eye twitch.

"The other guy, War Machine."

"I know who you're talking about," he deadpanned. "Why do you think he might be cute?"

She shrugged. "His voice and the way he acted during and after the robbery. I'm sure I can defend myself if I needed to, but I surely wouldn't mind being saved by him. Does he have, like, a fan club or a place he frequents?"

"Are you…are you really saying these words?"

"Of course I am! What? You don't think I'm good enough for War Machine?"

"No, I think you're good enough for him, but…War Machine, really?"

"Really. I know he's a superhero and all but hey, who wouldn't want to date one, huh? Then again," she tapped her chin with her index finger. "I'd probably be in danger all the time, right? Probably not worth it if I have to be watching my back 24/7."

Tony's mouth suddenly went dry and his mind reminded him of a similar conversation he had had before.

"_But, Rhodey…I…" Tony sat back on his chair, sighed loudly and shook his head. "Is this how it's always going to be with us? Can I really not be with her?"_

_ Rhodey's brows furrowed and he shrugged. "If I said that there's a high probability that she will be in constant danger for the rest of her life, will you stop seeing her?"_

Weeks later, the answer to Rhodey's question had not come to him yet even if he had already somewhat made a decision about it; a painful decision, at that.

"Yeah," he reluctantly agreed and looked down at the floor. "Probably not worth it at all."

"Oh, well. I can still admire him from afar; there's no harm in that," she shrugged again. "Anyway, what are you telling me today?"

"Huh?"

Pepper groaned and rolled her eyes. "About myself; what are you telling me?"

"Oh, yeah!" he said and rubbed his chin with his right hand. "Well, let's see…anything you'd want to know?"

"How did I end up here?"

"Except that?"

"Ugh," she growled. "Why did I ever agree to this? Whatever. How about you tell me more about what I used to do before my accident?"

"You mean, in school?"

"In school, out of school, whatever you can tell me."

"OK, I can do that," he answered, stood up and began pacing the room. "Well, the three of us – Rhodey, you and me, we used to go to the Tomorrow Academy in New York. It's a private high school on the other side of the city."

"I went to a private school? That's odd."

"Well, with your dad being an FBI agent, he probably thought you'd be safer attending a smaller school."

"Makes sense, I guess. What else?"

"You, Rhodey and I used to hang around all the time; during and after school. Rhodey and I have been friends since we were five, and you had an interest in solving crime with computers and hacking them, and I'd been teaching you how to do that in a much easier and more efficient way."

"Really? I was a computer nerd like you? AND you taught me how to break the law? And my dad was OK with it?"

Tony smirked. "He doesn't know about that part."

She giggled and winked at him. "Gotcha. Anything more? How do we know Gene?"

"Gene went to the academy for a little while but he left before graduation."

"To China?"

"Yes, to China."

"Why did he come back?"

"I told him you were ill."

"Oh," she said and furrowed her brows. "He flew all the way from China to see me? Man, I should've been more grateful to him when he was here."

"He knows you are; I'm sure of it."

"I'll still tell him how thankful I am that he's coming to see me when he's sees me off this Friday. He's very reserved, though. He looks like he's always mad at something."

"He is."

"You know," she chuckled and shook her head. "That's how I remembered his name at first, with a silly phrase."

"What do you mean?"

"Whenever I was trying to memorize everyone's names, I came up with phrases to help me remember them."

"Ah, I see what you mean," he said, stopped his pacing and sat by the foot of the bed. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Let's hear'em."

"What? No! They're stupid."

"The more reason to hear them," he lightly patted her left leg over the covers. "Spit them out, Potts."

"No!"

"Oh, come on, Pepper! I won't tell, I promise."

"I said no."

"Please?"

"I…uhm…fine! But if I find out you told them, I'm beating you up with my crutches."

"OK. I'll try not to move away if you do," he jested and she stuck out her tongue at him.

"Alright," she breathed in and slowly exhaled before speaking again. "Gene: always looking mean."

Tony scoffed as if he had expected something worse. "That's it?"

"No," she responded, looked down at her lap and started playing with the edge of the covers. "Rhodey: always in a worry."

Tony laughed aloud and Pepper chuckled lightly before continuing. "Dr. Ross: reminds me of Santa Claus."

"Oh, brother," Tony said and waited for the ginger to continue.

"Nurse Owen: thicker than an oven."

At that one, Tony busted out laughing. He knew exactly who Pepper was talking about: the mean nurse that always glared at him when he showed up to see his redheaded friend. "Oh, my God! This is priceless. Who else?"

"Mrs. Rhodes: treat her with some gloves."

"With gloves? Why?"

"Well," Pepper hesitated. "She talks as if she's interrogating you, you know? I know she's an attorney but, man! I feel I have to watch my words around her!"

"She came to see you again?"

"Yes, yesterday."

"That's nice of her. Who else?"

"That's it," she mumbled and her eyes shifted left and right.

"What?" He scoffed. "That can't be it. Where's mine?"

"I didn't…you... I didn't give you one."

"Yeah, right!" He crossed his hands over his chest. "Don't hold back on me, Pepper. I can handle it."

"No, I…" she bit her lower lip and avoided his gaze at all costs.

"Come on, Pep. Please, tell me what's mine."

"No, Tony. Drop it."

"Hell, no! I want to know. Tell me!"

"Stop it, Tony."

"Pepper," he stood up from the bed, and without thinking what he was doing, he sat next to her by the head of the bed and lightly hit her left shoulder with his right one. "Come on, I won't get mad, if that's what you're worried about. I promise."

The redhead sighed loudly and then stared at his face for a second before looking down at her lap once more. "Before…before I tell you, please keep in mind that I didn't know you that well."

"Yes, I know that."

"And also keep in mind that you told me you were my best friend and then didn't come to see me for a week."

"OK," he said, suddenly feeling regretful for asking in the first place but knowing it was too late to turn back now.

"And also consider that you hadn't yet sent over the gifts, or had taken me to lunch, or had offered me your home," she listed the actions with her fingers as she spoke. "I wasn't aware of how thoughtful you were going to be with me."

"Check, check, and check," he nodded. "So, what is it?"

Pepper felt her chest clench. She knew the phrase had meant nothing to her other than being a mnemonic tool to remember names, but now that she was getting to know Tony, the silly phrase had more meaning to her; a meaning she had not thought it would obtain. The phrase had gone from a stupid rhyme to an uncalled-for insult for her friend and now she had opened her big mouth to put her casted leg in it. "For you, after our first meeting, I…I was mad you didn't come back. So, so I said…I said…Tony: nothing but a phony."

Tony briefly narrowed his eyes and remained silent. He knew the phrase should have not hurt him, but it had really stung. The last thing he had wanted to seem to her was exactly that: a phony, but he could not really blame her for thinking of him as such. For all technical purposes, he _was_ being a phony right now since he was not being entirely sincere with her, but it was not for the reasons she had probably thought.

Not knowing what else to do and sensing his discomfort despite how much he was trying to hide it, she placed her left hand on top of his right one, and the sudden touch affected them both. For Tony, it was as if every nerve in his body had gone into overdrive at feeling the much needed but unexpected physical contact, and for a moment his breath hitched in his throat and his heart stopped. For Pepper, however, the shock of electricity brought much more to her than just the current tingle of her pores.

Her mind's eye traveled to another place, and she saw them sitting in a similar position, but she was to his left. The surroundings were unfamiliar to her, not at all ones that resembled the hospital they were currently in, and all she could see was an old cement floor underneath their feet and a concrete wall behind their backs. Tony was sitting with his legs bent to his chest and his left hand held onto her right one. Their fingers were laced together as he took their intertwined hands to his face to place a kiss on the back of her hand before resting his cheek on it, and as quick as the image had appeared, it went away.

The inventor noticed her confused state and distant eyes and he panicked. He removed the hand from under hers and placed it on her right cheek, slowly directing her head to face him. Pepper let him lead her as she constantly blinked her eyes, trying to adjust her sight until all she could see was Tony's worried face inches from hers. "Pepper, are you alright?"

She looked at him with wide eyes and gulped, forcing her voice to work. "I, uh…" she licked her lips and stared at his, the image of his mouth on her hand appearing to her for a quick second again. "I'm fine, I just…I thought I…I think I saw…"

"What? What is it? Did you remember something?"

Pepper pulled her head away from his hand and shook it from left to right before she began rubbing her right temple with her hand. "I'm not sure. It was quick; too quick. I couldn't tell exactly what it was."

Her left hand still lay on the bed, and when from the corner of her eye she could see his intent to touch it again, Pepper mover her hand away and used them both to cover her face, taking in deep calming breaths. When she felt her breathing returning to normal, she placed her overlapping open hands on her chest, willing her heart to stop beating as fast as it was. "I'm sorry, Tony. I wasn't expecting that. Uhm, what…what were you saying?"

Tony stared at her up and down, or as much as he could of her with the blankets covering her lower half. He furrowed his brows when his eyes landed on hers, and this time she was not able to maintain the stare and looked back at the television.

"Nothing," he finally said, still staring at her face. "Nothing important."

"Are-are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." He stood up from the bed, walked over to his backpack and put it on. "Well, I better get going. I'm sure _The Oven_ is going to come kick me out any moment now."

It took Pepper a brief second to piece together what he had said, and when she connected the dots she gave him a forced smile. "Oh, yeah, you're right. The Oven," she stared at the floor. "Listen, Tony, about your phrase…"

He raised his palm to her. "It's not a big deal, Pepper. Forget I even asked, alright?"

She eyed his obviously hurt features and nodded before looking down at her lap. "I," she gulped. "I was going to say _yes_ but…if…if you no longer want me to…I-I'll understand…"

Even though he could tell she was trying to avoid facing him, he still walked over to her, sat on the edge of the bed again and embraced her. He buried her face between his left shoulder and neck, and he rubbed her back up and down with his right arm. His left arm surrounded her waist and he rested the side of his face on hers. He heard her gasp at the initial contact and she hesitated for a moment. However, she eventually closed her eyes and returned the gesture, exhaling slowly as she did so.

"My proposition still stands," he whispered to her. "But if this is not what you want after all, tell me what you'll do and I'll help you with whatever it is that you need right now. Either way, I'm here for you, Pepper."

Pepper opened her eyes and stared at the window as she spoke. "Are you sure your dad won't mind?"

"He's looking forward to it."

"Really?"

"Yes," he lightly chuckled and pulled away from her shoulder but did not break the embrace. "We both are. What did your parents say?"

"That it was a good idea, surprisingly enough."

"And, what do you think?"

"I think I'm going to owe you forever, but that I'll find a way to pay you back."

"I'm sure you will," he smiled and reluctantly let go of her and stood up. "I'm sorry, but I really have to go now. I don't want to have my visitation rights revoked."

Pepper giggled, finally feeling somewhat relieved about the passing of the awkward moment between them. "Tell me about it. If they ban you from coming here, I'm screwed. Are you coming tomorrow?"

Tony shrugged. "I don't know, Pep. My dad likes to have his meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"You still haven't even told me what those meetings are about. I thought you said you were _the man_," she snickered.

"I am, and I will tell and show you a lot when I come pick you up on Friday."

"You promise?"

"I promise," he responded to her and then heard a loud knock on the door. "Shit! It's her. I gotta go, Pep."

"OK, OK, go!"

"Alright," he took a few steps toward the divider wall but then stopped and snapped his fingers. He turned around in place and ran back to her, taking out from his pocket a small device. "Here, this is for you."

She grabbed the purple device in her hands and stared at it confused before looking up to face him. "What is this?"

"A cellphone."

"A…cellphone?" she eyed it again. It seemed like an expensive one at that and as fancy as the game console and MP3 player had turned out to be after further inspection. "No, Tony, I can't take this," she shook her head and tried handing it back to him. The knocks on the door became louder and were now accompanied by the forced jingling of the handle.

"Please, let's not argue about this right now. We don't have time. Just take it, alright?"

"No, Tony, please. This is too much."

Tony shook his head and placed her hands over and under the device. "Take it, Pepper. I assure you it's nothing. Don't you want to have a way to communicate with the outside word?"

_"Mr. Stark! Visiting hours are over!"_ The teens heard Nurse Owens say from outside._ "And why is the door locked?"_

"I know," Tony yelled back. "I'll be out in a minute."

_"You don't have a minute, Mr. Stark!"_ The nurse responded but Tony ignored her.

"You locked the door?" Pepper snickered.

"Yeah. I didn't want her barging in announced."

_"MR. STARK! Unlock this door RIGHT NOW!"_

Both teens chuckled, hands still touching. "You better go open that door, Tony, or _The Oven_ is going to blow."

"Alright, alright. But you have to take the phone."

"But, I have no one's number."

_"MR. STARK!"_ The angry tone of the nurse outside made Tony look back for a second, fearing she was right behind him but when he realized she was still outside he returned his attention to Pepper.

"Speed dial #2," he said to her.

"What?"

_"MR. STARK! I'm going to revoke your visiting rights!"_

"My number. Speed dial #2," he repeated.

"Oh, OK," she nodded to him and they both froze when they heard the door starting to get unlocked. "Go, Tony! I'll see you Friday."

"OK," he told her, hands still together, and leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Bye, Pep."

The redhead's eyes widened but her expression of shock was lost to the inventor who was now performing evasive maneuvers against Nurse Owens' wrath by the divider wall. Pepper would have been amused at the entire situation, but she only had enough time to recover from Tony's parting gesture to hide the cellphone under the covers before The Oven finally faced her.

xxxXXXxxx

"The profits for the second quarter of the year are much higher than the first, and the board thinks it's thanks to the affiliation with Stark Solutions," one of the images of SI's Board of Executives said with a satisfied smile. "We are forecasting even greater profits by years-end when Stark Solutions unveils their new line of Stark Pods just in time for the holidays."

"Indeed," another board member began. "Not to mention the revenue the almost-closing contract with the Museum of Natural History for the Earth Movers will bring."

"Absolutely," a third board member began. "Our consultants even said…"

Tony held back a groan as he tuned out the rest of the conversation he was not the least bit interested in. He knew it was his responsibility to be in these meetings with his father since Tony now had a controlling interest in Stark International since Stark Solutions had become one of its affiliates, but that did not mean he had to enjoy being lock up in a room with 11 other people – 10 of which were nothing more than digital projections, anyway. He really did not give a rat's ass about the quarterly numbers' debriefing; he had skimmed over the final report and already knew the companies were doing great.

He truly did not see a purpose of sitting through these long meetings to repeat the information that had already been given in written form, and most especially not after said meeting made him again miss visiting hours at the hospital. The only thing keeping him from dying of boredom in his chair was the thought of Pepper moving in to his house with him tomorrow and seeing her every day, under his own roof, for the next two months.

That, and the fact that Pepper had figured out how to text him.

_"Still stuck in a meeting?"_ the incoming text from the redhead said. Tony shamelessly grabbed the pod in his hands and texted back to her.

_ "Yeah, not even halfway done with it."_

_ "So much for being The Man ;)" _She responded and he smirked.

_"Gonna make you eat those words tomorrow."_

_ "We'll see. Do you think we can go shopping on Saturday?"_

_ "Shopping?"_

_ "Yeah. My dad said all my belongings are gone."_

"_Oh, yeah. Hadn't thought about that."_

"_Something about losing them during my incident." _

"_True," _he responded, suddenly feeling like an idiot for not realizing sooner that Pepper had packed up all her belongings to move to California with whom everyone thought was Loretta. He did not think Whitney had kept anything as a souvenir. Knowing the deranged girl, she was more likely to burn Pepper's stuff than keeping them around to gloat.

"_Did I try to run away?"_

The question took the inventor by surprise and he shook his head as if the redhead could see his physical response. She had tried running away BEFORE Whitney had taken her away, but it had been for completely different reasons._ "Nope. I'll explain more, later."_

_ "You always say that :/"_

_ "I will."_

_ "Uh, oh!"_

_ "What?"_

_ "The Oven's here. GTG."_

_ "K."_

"Tony, what do you think?" The genius heard his name and suddenly all eyes were on him, including his father's knowing ones. He was not expecting to be asked anything – the meeting was just supposed to be a regurgitation of the quarterly numbers.

"Uhm…Do what?"

"Your opinion, Tony. What do you think about Mr. Green's proposition?"

"I, uh, ahem. Run it by me again?"

"Iron Man."

"What about him?"

"Can he make an appearance at the inauguration ceremony of the new children's hospital SI's sponsoring?"

"Uh, when?"

"This Sunday."

"Sunday?" He looked down at his pod. "Uhm, sure, why not?"

"Marvelous! Can War Machine and Rescue show up, too? The kids will love it!"

Tony's eyes landed on his father's and Howard gave him a one-sided shrug. Tony scratched the top of his head. "I'll talk to War Machine, but I think Rescue may not be able to be there at all."

"Oh, that's a shame," Roland Green said with honesty. "My niece is going to be there – she has leukemia. She was looking forward to meeting the only woman superhero in town."

Tony cringed. "Oh. I-I can't promise anything for her. Rescue has been sick herself."

"Oh, is Miss Potts alright?" Diane Tincher, one of the few board members that had taken the time to talk to and get to know Rhodey, Tony and Pepper, inquired with genuine concern.

"She, uhm, had an accident," Tony said, carefully measuring his words. Pepper's kidnapping had been kept under wraps, and no mention of Rescue's status had been made to anyone to avoid the redhead finding out about her alter ego before Tony had a chance to break it down for her. The news had just assumed the appearance of the female hero had been a one-time attendance, and requests for her whereabouts had slowly declined since the invasion became old news.

"Oh, my! When did this happen?"

"A couple of week ago," he lied. "She broke her leg."

"Goodness gracious! I hope she's better now."

"She is, just not able to move around much for now. I'll let her know you send her your regards."

"Please do. She's such a sweet girl," Diane continued. "And very pretty, too, isn't she, Tony?"

"I, uh, ahem, ah, uhm…" Tony cleared his throat repeatedly. He readjusted his position in his chair several times, all the while rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't…I don't understand the question."

A chorus of light chuckles was heard and Tony covered his face to keep the hint of red from being displayed in front of everyone. It was not as if he was ashamed of what he felt for Pepper, but it was one thing for his friends and family to know about it, and a completely different thing for the board members of his company to tease him about it. They were strangers to Tony despite some of them having been around before he was even born, and in the back of Tony's mind none of them had the right to be privy to what occurred between him and his redhead.

When the teasing finally stopped, Howard cleared his throat and stood up, and Tony had never felt so relieved to have his father around to have his back. "I think what Tony's trying to say is that we're all tired of hearing how great the company is doing. I call a motion for early dismissal."

"I second that motion," Diane said, feeling slightly guilty that her innocent question had put the young man in a tight spot.

"Any opposed?" Howard asked and everyone shook their head. "Alright, then. See you all next Tuesday."

The holographic projection immediately disappeared and left father and son alone in the main CEO office. Tony stood up from his chair and walked over to the large window and stared outside. The city below them was getting busy with the afternoon commute traffic reaching its highest point and it only reminded Tony that he would be fighting that traffic every weekday starting next week.

"Anthony, are you sure you don't want Pepper to live here?" Howard asked as he returned to his main desk and began wrapping up the day's work, giving his back to his still standing son. "You know you'll both be much more comfortable living and working in the same place."

"She doesn't need to be overwhelmed right now." Tony responded. "She doesn't even remember she works with me. I'll bring her here when she's ready."

"You haven't told her much, have you?"

Tony shrugged. "I've told her a lot of things but without detail."

"So, you haven't told her anything as it is, I take it?"

"It sounds like it, but those little things will make more sense to her tomorrow."

"How are you planning on having Iron Man attend the ceremony without her knowing?"

"I'll tell her I have to be there for SI as Tony Stark. She won't be interested in coming with a casted leg, anyway."

"You're taking a big risk not telling her about Iron Man right away. How do you expect to earn back her trust if you are not honest with her?"

"It wouldn't make any sense to her just yet. I'm dropping a bombshell on her tomorrow already. I'll see how she takes that and then I'll let her absorb the information before I tell her something else."

"When is she being discharged?" Howard inquired.

"Noon."

"I'll be there when you guys arrive at the old house, but I have to come right back."

"Yeah, I know," the inventor said and finally walked away from the window when his phone began to ring. He stared down at it and saw Pepper was calling him and he smiled.

"She's calling you, isn't she?" Howard smirked, having by now learned the particular smile Tony had reserved for anything related to the redheaded girl.

"And texting me, at the same time."

"Already regretting giving her a pod?" Howard chuckled.

"Not at all," he admitted. "Rhodey would never let it go if I told him, but I actually missed her constant texting and calling."

"I'll never let it go," Howard chuckled and then began walking to the door. "I'm going to the penthouse. You coming?"

"Yeah, in a little while. I'm taking the call here, if you don't mind."

"Suit yourself. I wouldn't want to get caught hearing whatever you do with her over the phone," he grinned and opened the door.

"Ugh, Dad! Seriously!" Tony shook his head at his father who just waved him off. "It's not like that."

"Yet," Howard added and skillfully avoided the pen Tony threw his way. The older Stark finally closed the door and left Tony dialing back Pepper's number since his conversation with his father had made him miss the call. The phone rung only half of one time before the call was answered, and as he was about to utter a word, Pepper's breaking voice interrupted him.

_"Tony…they-they,"_ he heard her sniffle. _"They didn't something awful!"_

Tony immediately panicked and began rushing to the door on his way to the elevator, his mind already mapping several paths to the hospital in case he needed to rush to it. "What? Pepper, what happened? Are you alright?"

_"N-n-no,"_ she sniffled some more. _"They took them! They took them from me!"_

"They, who? Are you hurt? What's going on? What did they take?" He was running at full speed now and anyone in his way had enough sense to move, especially when he threw himself inside the closest elevator. "Are you in pain?"

_ "No, I…Tony, The Oven…and Santa Claus…they…they…"_

"They, what? Pepper you're seriously scaring me. Talk to me! What did Santa Claus do?" He all but yelled on the phone, causing some bystanders at the elevator to turn his way with a confused look on their faces, wondering what ol' Saint Nick could have possibly done to Iron Man. "What did they do to you?"

They? Were the elves involved, too?

_"Tony,"_ she took in a deep breath and he heard her hiccup. _"They took my crutches!"_

It took the inventor a second to recover his senses and when he did he had to hold back a chuckle. He rested his back against the back wall of the elevator he had practically hijacked, closed his eyes and covered them with his left hand, his right hand keeping his pod on his right ear. "Why?" he whispered, suddenly very aware that everyone was stealing curious glances at him. "Why did they take them from you?"

_"Because I __**accidentally**__ tripped Roy with them."_

Tony removed his hand from his face and took a relieved deep breath. At the same time his eyes focused on the front doors, they opened to the 58th floor and while Tony had intended to go to the penthouse, he decided to walk out from the elevator right now and find an empty office to continue his conversation with Pepper.

"Was Roy bothering you again?" Tony asked as he made his way around the rows of desks and cubicles, very aware that the SI employees who were yet to leave for the day eyed him with shock. Tony spent most of his time in the building either in his lab or at the penthouse. He was rarely seen on other levels, and they all knew it was not the young inventor's style to make a random, surprise appearance to audit anyone's actions on the job.

_"This morning," _the redhead continued, sounding a little bit calmer now that someone was willing to listen to her predicament, as preposterous as it sounded. _"He again made fun of me with the Pepto-Bismol joke."_

"Again? That asshole!" Tony spat, honestly upset about the nerve of the man. "I told you I could've had a talk with him about it, Pepper. Why didn't you let me?"

_"Because I thought I could handle it and I thought he'd just forget about it after a while. 'sides, it's not like you're my boyfriend or something like that. He'd get the wrong idea and probably tease me even more."_

"I'm still your friend," he defended. It was true that Pepper was no longer his girlfriend – as much as it pained him, but that did not mean he was not going to act as if she still were as long as she allowed it. "He's acting rather unprofessionally anyway, teasing you like that."

_"No, he's right. Pep is a stupid nickname."_

"No, it's not. I love it." He responded as he walked inside an empty office, closed the door behind him and sat on the floor, his back against one of the glass walls.

_ "Of course you would! You came up with it!"_

"Because it suits you. Besides, you always asked everyone to call you 'Pepper'. I just took it to the next level."

She grumbled and he felt better. He preferred a grumbling Pepper than a crying one. "So, they took your crutches because of that?"

_"Well, uhm…"_

Tony smirked. "What else did you do with them?"

_"I, ahem, might've…organized…a…uh…little competition."_

Tony's head jerked back in surprise. "What kind of competition?"

_"The kind that gets my crutches taken away,"_ she began. _"I was bored, and I knew I couldn't be the only one, so I started going to the other rooms, talking to the other inmates and, well…"_

"Did you organize a rebellion, Pepper? A jailbreak?" He chuckled.

_"I wouldn't call it that,"_ she replied. _"More like a mini-Olympics event…in the hall…and the cafeteria…and the parking lot…"_

Tony laughed aloud. "Did you get your entire floor in trouble?"

_"I wouldn't say in trouble…but all of the crutches and wheelchairs were taken from us."_

"Wheelchairs?"

_"The crutches could only take us so far! And we had a tie after the person who was winning got tangled in the cords of his IV lines and fell to the floor…he had to get some stitches…over his other stitches…no biggie…he needed new ones, anyway."_

"Oh, jeez, Pep! Even not remembering much about yourself, that's something you would've done! Was anyone seriously hurt?"

_"Only Roy," _she giggled._ "He's gonna need crutches." _

"So no one that matters."

_ "Nope. Everyone said this was the most fun they've had in a while, even the guy that got his spleen removed a few days ago."_

"Well, I'm sure they're going to miss you."

_"I think I'm going to miss them, too,"_ she said, her voice nearly a whisper as she suddenly realized the friends she had made today she would surely never see again after tomorrow. _"But not enough to stay here any longer than I need to."_

"I wouldn't let you stay, anyway. People out here miss you, too."

_ "Does that include your dad? I'm still nervous about bunking with you."_

"He's fine with it. He spends most of the time at work, anyway."

_"What does he do? I don't think you've ever told me about it."_

"It's long and complicated but it's similar to what I do."

_"Are long and complicated your code words for 'boring'?"_

"I'll show you and you tell me."

_"Deal. When should I expect you?"_

"Eleven."

_"I can't leave until noon."_

"I know but I want us to have some time to talk before we leave."

_"Talk about what? Let me guess, you'd rather just tell me in person."_

"Yes."

_"Why are you so mysterious about everything, Tony? You know the phone you gave me has internet, right?"_

"Yes, I'm aware of that, among other awesome features I'll show you later."

_"You know I could just hang up right now and look up online anything I want to know, right now."_

"Yes. I know that, too," his voice did not give away how he really felt about Pepper insinuating going around his back for information.

_ "Then why did you give this to me knowing what I could do with it? What I could find?"_

"Because I trust that you will keep your end of the deal. You've never betrayed me before, Pepper, and I trust you won't start now."

The silence on the other end of the line extended for so long that the genius thought she had hung up on him at some point. He had not heard the double-beep the pods made to signify the end of a call, so he just waited for her to respond.

_ "That's a mean move, Tony."_

"Just telling you the truth."

She sighed. _"Fine, but I expect more than just cryptic clues tomorrow or I'm living in the streets."_

"You're not living in the streets if I can help it. In fact, I can give you a hint right now. Would that make it better?"

_ "Yes!"_

"OK. When this call is over, open the back of the phone."

_ "What do you mean the back?"_

"Where the battery is."

_ "Uh! That sounds cryptic to me!"_

"It's not. I promise."

_ "Alright. I'll take it."_

"Good," he said and was about to begin to say something else but his pod beeped to let him know Iron Man was needed. "I gotta go, Pepper."

_"OK. I should go, too. It's been hard to hide the phone from The Oven and Santa Claus, and they're coming in any moment to take me to my last round of checkups."_

"Don't forget the elves, and Mrs. Claus. I heard they can be mean, too."

"_I already blackmailed them,"_ she said with a tone that reeked of an obvious smile on her face.

Tony snickered. "Alright. I'll see you tomorrow, Pepper."

_ "I'll see you tomorrow, Tony."_

The call ended immediately from Pepper's end, and he knew it would be the case as soon as he told her about the battery clue. As Tony left the 58th floor and called his suit to him, Pepper did just as she was told. She only had a few minutes before the doctor and nurse showed up, so she quickly flipped over the phone and eyed it meticulously, trying to figure out how the small compartment of the battery unlatched. The last thing she wanted to do was breaking the damn thing; it had proven to be very useful to her so far.

Once she got it open she did not immediately see what the clue was. She took out the battery and alternated between staring at it and at the cover, and right about the moment when she was about to give up she saw what Tony had talked about.

On the inner part of the battery compartment, engraved on the phone itself, was a symbol she did not recognize but that she knew she should have. She squinted to read the tiny caption underneath the logo and when she uttered the words aloud, she gasped.

The phone did not just belong to Tony; Tony had _made_ the phone.

"Stark Solutions," the redhead repeated aloud again. "Tony _Stark_…"

Fighting the urge to call him back or use the phone to find more about what she had learned was difficult, but the inventor was right in his assumption: Pepper would not betray his trust. That, however, did nothing for the anger that was rising inside of her at learning the fact.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Major shot out to my Faithful Readers! This chapter is dedicated to my top 5 countries with readers for this story: US, India, Australia, Mexico and the UK! You all rock! Don't feel left out: more shot outs to come :) Don't forget to say hi!

* * *

**Chapter 3**

She was furious, that much was for sure. Everyone who had come to say goodbye to her on her last day at the hospital – Rhodey, her parents, Roberta, even Gene Khan, all of which currently stood before her in her hospital room, could tell how unbelievably pissed off she was and they were all glad her anger was not directed at them.

"So, sweetheart," Virgil began and walked over to the crossed-armed girl. "Both your mother and I need to catch our planes. Are you sure you don't want us to reschedule? We could wait until tomorrow to leave?"

"No, Dad," Pepper shook her head and forced herself to not let her ire take away from her goodbye to her family. "You've already been off duty for too long. I don't want you to get in trouble."

"I wouldn't, Patricia," he opened his arms toward his daughter. "But I can tell you're going to be alright either way. If your plans _change_, give your mother a call."

"Alright," Pepper returned the embrace and kissed her father's cheek. "Be careful, Dad. It's dangerous out there in the Middle East."

"I'll be careful, Honey. As soon as I get clearance for it, I'll give you a call." Mr. Potts stated and stepped aside to give Loretta a chance to stand next to the ginger.

"Are you sure you don't want to come over to Pittsburgh for your birthday next month? It's no problem for me to take a few days off work." The experience Pepper had to endure had made Loretta regret many things she had done in the past, including the acts that had led to her divorce from Virgil. Sixteen years was a long time to be alone, and while she knew Virgil and her would never reconnect enough to try to be together again, she did want to make it up to her daughter in some way, shape or form.

"No, Mom, I'm going to be busy, I'm sure." Pepper replied.

"But, it's your 18th birthday!" Loretta insisted.

"Yup, so I'm probably going to be doing stuff you don't want to see me doing," she said with a smile.

"Aw, Patricia!" Loretta hugged her daughter and again Pepper returned the embrace. "Call me if you need anything, OK?"

"OK." The girl responded and Loretta stepped aside to let the next guest speak with Pepper.

"Look, Patricia, I brought you this," Roberta said and handed her a gift bag. "I know you lost most of your belongings when, well, you know…"

Pepper nodded and grabbed the bag from her. She then dug her hand inside the bag and took out a large box with ribbons, colored paper, scissors, tape, buttons, stickers and other decorative items. "What's this?"

"It's a scrapbooking kit," Roberta said. "Just because you don't remember much about the past right now, it doesn't mean you can't start making new memories for your future, right?"

Pepper eyed the contents of the box once more and knitted her brows. She smiled softly and held back the tears that threatened to fall as she pressed the box closely to her chest as if it was the answer to all her troubles. She was sincerely touched by Roberta's gift and words, and she was glad that someone was attempting to make the best out of her gloomy situation. The redhead returned the box to the bag and placed the bag on top of the table next to her bed before she hugged Roberta with as much force as she could, all the while remembering Tony's words about the woman.

_"Is that why Rhodey's mom hasn't shown up since the day I woke up?"_

_ "Yup. Roberta's been like a mom to the both of us. She was worried sick about you; still is."_

"Thank you, Mrs. Rhodes," Pepper pulled back from the embrace.

"Roberta,"

"Roberta," Pepper corrected herself. "This is going to help me a lot."

"I sure hope so," Roberta responded before she eyed the other two older adults in the room. "So, why don't we let these kids said their goodbyes without us interrupting them, huh? What do you say?"

"Yes," Loretta said with a wink. "We're probably raining on their plans to kidnap Patricia for her birthday."

"No, no kidnapping!" Virgil said almost automatically. "Kidnapping is punishable by state law, and federal law if done across state lines."

"Dad, you can relax," Pepper rolled her eyes and patted her father's shoulder. "It's not kidnapping if I agree to go with them."

"Come on, Virgil! Let the kids be," Loretta said, grabbed him by the arm and lead him to the door, Roberta following closely behind.

"I'll be waiting outside, James," the attorney said.

"Alright, Mom."

Once they heard the door close, Pepper returned her attention to Rhodey and Gene, both of which stood by the foot of her bed. She was no longer in her hospital gown as she had woken up early today to get ready for the big day. She did not have much to pack other than the clothes Virgil and Loretta had bought her to last her for a few weeks while she bought more with her college fund, which appeared more and more that it was not going to be used for college at all at the rate she was getting back to something that resembled a normal life. The ginger had also spent time this morning going from door to door (in a wheelchair, monitored by The Oven, of course) to say goodbye to the friends she had made yesterday during the only fun thing she had done in this God forsaken hospital.

By the time Pepper had returned to her room, Gene had already been waiting for her, and little by little the rest of the crowd had appeared. Her luggage was of one bag containing her clothes, the gifts she had received while here, and she would then add the gifts she was now receiving from the only people that cared for her in the world. She really did not have much, but for some reason that had made her feel better…until Roy had shown up to her room when Gene had excused himself for a second to go tend to an important call and only to burst the bubble she had been building around herself.

"Any chance the kidnapping idea can be real and done right now?" Pepper asked with a half-hearted smile. Everyone had already told her to ignore Roy's painful words to her this morning, but none of them had denied the essence of his message to her was true.

"Wait until we all turn 21 so we can go to Vegas," Rhodey replied with a smirk and sat to the left of the redhead who had been sitting on the edge of the bed, facing the divider wall to the exit. "But seriously, Pepper, are you going to be alright living with Tony after what you found out this morning?"

Pepper sighed loudly and shrugged. "I don't know, Rhodey. I kinda see why he would've kept it from me, but it still makes me mad he didn't just tell me right off the bat."

"And it's alright to be mad," he grabbed her left hand in both of his. "But think about it from his perspective. I'm not defending him, mind you; he should've told you much sooner, but I can see he just didn't want to lose you-your friendship." Rhodey cleared his throat, pretending the hesitation in his words came from a suddenly dry mouth than a slip of the tongue. Thankfully for him, Pepper did not notice his swift moment of panic.

"So he just lied to me so that I'd trust him before he told me truth? That's even worse than coming clean with me."

"He's just watching out for you," Rhodey said. "You're…you're his best friend."

"Rhodes is right, Pepper," Gene said despite the temptation to see Tony get chewed up by the spunky ginger. He no longer really hated Tony anymore, and he never did actually hate Pepper, but it was rather amusing to him to see how the young man with one of the highest IQ on the planet would turn into a babbling idiot when Pepper was mad at him. "Stark is clueless sometimes…most of the time…well, he-he's blind, really. But one thing he's not is a manipulator; at least not with his friends."

"I'm still going to ask for an explanation," Pepper said, not ready to let the issue go.

"And you should," Gene said. "But listen to what he has to say before you hit him with your crutches."

"You mean the ones that got taken away?" Pepper asked with a scoff.

"Tony's bringing some for you." Rhodey added.

"Oh, so his company doesn't only make cell phones, they make high-tech crutches, too?" She rolled her eyes. "Oh, goodie!"

Rhodey shrugged. He was not sure if Tony was going to buy a regular pair of crutches or if he had taken the time to make super advanced ones himself. "He did make himself a high-tech prosthesis."

"A what?"

"Nothing, Pepper," Rhodey said and hugged her from the side. "Look, just don't feel like you have to forgive him right away…or at all. You can always stay at my place."

"Thanks, Rhodey." She hugged him back and he kissed her cheek. "You're the best."

"Yeah, I am!" He smiled, pulled away from the embrace and then handed her a small box. "Here, I know we're still going to hang around before I leave for Colorado, but I still wanted to get you something, and this kinda belongs to you, anyway."

"What is it?" She asked as she opened the box and gasped. "Oh, my God!"

"I missed you at the ceremony," he added as the redhead took out from the box an Honor Cord with the Tomorrow Academy's emblem and name that she would have received during graduation if she had not been unenrolled by the fake Loretta, and a golden tassel with the academic school year dangling from one of its strings. "Principal Nara had already ordered them before your accident, so I convinced him to send it over to me so you could have it. You've earned them."

"Oh, Rhodey," this time Pepper could not hold back the tears. "Are you sure _you're_ not my best friend? Because right now you sound more like it than Tony does."

"Nope." Rhodey chuckled. "Tony's still your best friend."

"Alright, if you say so." She sniffed and hugged James again. "Thank you so much, Rhodey."

Rhodey kissed Pepper's forehead and stood up. "It was nothing, Pepper." He then waved at her as he left. "See you later, Peps!"

"See you later, Rhodey!" She called from her position on the bed. Gene eyed the door and waited for Rhodey to leave before he took over the spot the other young man had just vacated. Pepper smiled as she put away her would-be graduation ceremony regalia and set the box aside on the bed. She then wiped her tears with the back of her hand and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Gene. I don't know why that got me so bad."

"It's not a big deal, Pepper. Don't worry about it," he said and stared at her from the corner of his eye. "In fact, I've got just the thing for you."

"What is it?" She asked and Gene handed her another small box, making the ginger chuckle lightly. "Are you boys trying to make me cry or something? Is there a bet going on?"

"Not at all, Pepper. Just open it."

Pepper took her time to carefully unwrap the decorated box as she spoke. "You know, Gene, Tony told me you flew from China to come see how I was doing. That's very sweet of you."

"I was in the neighborhood," he shrugged in a non-committal manner but something within Pepper knew he was just trying to make it sound as if it was not as important as she was making it sound. "Besides, I hadn't seen you in a while; a visit was due."

"Well," she began and looked up to her left at his face. "Even if you were in the neighborhood, I'm very grateful that you were here. It means a lot to me."

Gene gave her a small smile and Pepper returned an even wider one before her eyes landed on the box again. She removed the lid from it and furrowed her brows. "Gene…wow…"

Her fingers struggled to take out the wooden box inside the plastic box she had just unwrapped, but once the wooden box was on her lap, she gasped in astonishment. "This is beautiful."

Her fingertips slid over the reddish-brown, smooth surface which was adorned with hand-painted flowers and leaves in different tones of red-brown, almost blending in with the box itself. On each corner of the top of the box were triangular, brass metal attachments, all with Chinese symbols painted over them. In the middle of the top of the box was also a circular symbol she did not recognize, but she assumed was Chinese in origin as well.

"It's the Shou symbol," Gene said as if reading her thoughts – which he probably could do if he wanted to. "It means 'longevity'."

"Longevity," she mumbled. Her thumb then traveled to the middle of the box and she unlatched the small lock holding the two halves together. Inside the box, on the top side, was a mirror. Inside the box itself was a handkerchief with patterns of fans, flowers and trees, and at the bottom of the box was the picture of a gold and green dragon. Pepper knew the handkerchief was made of silk with the way it slid down her hands when she grabbed it. She let her fingers play with the smooth fabric for a second before she folded the handkerchief and placed it inside the box again. "This is gorgeous, Gene. It must…it must've cost you a fortune."

"I'm rich, too, remember?" He asked her, knowing he had told her some of his past this morning before anyone else had shown up, and before he was even aware that one of Tony's secret's was going to be spilled by someone else.

"I know but, wow, this looks so expensive."

"It's a family heirloom. It belonged to my mother."

Pepper's head jerked to her left. She had just today also found out about the fact that Gene was an orphan when she had asked him if his parents minded him leaving China so much; that and the fact that Gene was a business man and traveled a lot anyway. "Gene, you told me your mom…you told me she…wouldn't you rather have this?"

"I've got plenty of other things from her," he responded and felt the necklace of rings under his shirt become warm. "But this one I want you to have."

"Why?"

"Because you need it. Because I know how you feel right now: lost, confused, unable to find your place in this world, and once you start piecing together what happened to you, you may want to not be around anymore. You may want to leave it all behind."

Pepper gulped. "Was it really that terrible, what happened to me?"

"It was uncalled for, to say the least. And if you ever feel like it's not worth living with the truth, I want you to look at this box and hold it, and remember that you still have longevity in your hands."

Pepper looked down at the box and nodded before closing it and setting it aside. She then turned to face Gene and gave him a hug he immediately returned. "Tony's hiding something big from me, isn't he?"

"He's not the only one, Pepper," he said and the ginger sighed. "But that doesn't mean you should let him off easy," he smirked and Pepper chuckled.

"I'll listen to him. I promise."

"And if you need anyone to listen to you, give me a call."

"Thank you Gene," she pulled away from him but not before placing a kiss next to his lips. "I have a feeling I once had a crush on you."

"Whatever you do, Pepper: don't bring that up with Stark."

The ginger laughed aloud and nodded and Gene took it as his cue to leave. "Speaking of which," he continued and stood up from the bed and began walking to the exit. "It's almost 11. He's going to be here any minute."

"Any last piece of advice before I confront him?" Pepper asked with a tilt of the head, giving her departing friend a warm smile.

Gene looked up to the ceiling as if giving her question some considerable thought before he returned his eyes to her and smiled. "Don't hold back with the crutches he brings over. You're already at a hospital."

Pepper laughed again, imagining how quickly Dr. Ross and Nurse Owens would show up to peel a beat-up Tony Stark off the floor. Gene then gave her a small salute with his hand and she waved him off. The Mandarin alter ego walked down the small hall that lead to the door and exited the room.

Outside in the hall, he saw that Roberta, Virgil, Loretta and Rhodey still hung around, all talking about different things and when they saw Gene come out of the room, they all turned to face him.

"Is she going to go easy on him?" Roberta asked and Gene shrugged.

"All I can say is that it's a shame I won't be here to see this."

"To see what?" the inventor suddenly asked from his position between the reception counter and the elevator cart he had just left. "To see what?"

The five adults stared at each other but none of them dared to answer Tony's question. Instead, they all began walking toward the elevator, giving the genius their own version of a warning…or an anticipated eulogy.

"Good luck, Tony," Virgil said and patted the inventor's back when he walked next to the young man. Loretta gave him a sympathetic smile and a light squeeze on his left shoulder but said no words to him. Next was Roberta, who shook her head at him and crossed her arms over her chest before mumbling something about how good it was that he had already set his will.

"It was nice knowing you," said Rhodey when he walked by, and behind Rhodey, Gene gave his old friend and rival a smug smile.

The five of them disappeared inside the elevator and with them they took the last bits of self-control over the anxiety that Tony had. He took a deep breath and ended the distance between him and the visitor's sign-in sheet. He could hardly remember how to sign his own name before he turned around and walked to Pepper's door.

"Hey, it's Tony. Can I come in?"

_"Yes."_ He heard her say and he walked inside. In a matter of seconds he was standing in front her ready-to-go form, and even though the air felt thick with tension he plastered the most honest smile he could on his face. He noted she was wearing a teal, sleeveless dress, which allowed her cast not to get in the way of her dressing up, and she also wore one sandal on her left foot. This was the first time Tony had ever seen her in a dress, and he wondered why the hell she had not worn them more often before.

"Hey, Pep. I take it everyone already said goodbye?"

"Yup. They got here earlier than expected."

"Ah, that's nice. I…I got you some fancy crutches."

The ginger nodded, her stoic face giving nothing away. "Rhodey told me. Is that something your company does too, besides cell phones?"

Tony exhaled. "I take it the battery revealed more than I thought?"

"No, not the battery. It was more what Roy told me this morning that revealed more than I thought I knew was going on."

"Roy? The nurse guy?" Tony asked and took a few steps toward her, sensing the redhead was somewhat mad at him but wanting to be closer to her anyway.

"Yes. Only he's a patient now after the accident he had yesterday."

"Oh, wow! That's ironic."

"Not as the fact that the man who has been annoying me all this time is the one who told me the truth about you, even if he did it just to spite me."

Tony was taken aback. "You mean about my company?"

"That and that you're apparently filthy rich, and he also told me the reason why you've been so nice with me."

"A-what?" Tony swallowed hard. "What did he-uhm, tell you?"

"What do you think he told me?" She challenged and folded her arms over her chest. "You should know."

Tony felt his heart get caught in his throat, making it difficult for him to breathe. He looked up to the ceiling and exhaled; now understanding why everyone who had left the room seconds ago had stared at him as if he was walking to his death row. He finally stared back at Pepper, shortened the distance between them and sat on the bed next to her. The fact that she did not stop him was enough motivation to feel he still had a chance to explain himself before the ginger kicked him out of the room...and hopefully just that.

"Why don't you tell me what he told you and I'll tell you if it's true."

Pepper opened her mouth to make a rude remark but then Gene and Rhodey's words returned to her and she sighed in defeat. "He told me you're a billionaire."

"I am." He answered with a slight nod and stole a quick glance toward her.

"And that your dad's a billionaire, too."

"He is."

"And that the only reason you've been giving me gifts and visiting me is because you're responsible for me being here in the first place. He said it was your fault I almost died, and that you feel sorry and guilty about it and that's why you've doing what you've doing so far. Not out of friendship, but out of remorse."

Tony pursed his lips and stared at the floor. "Is that all?"

"Yes. Is there more? Are you going to deny it?"

He shook his head. "There is more. And no, I'm not going to deny it all. Some of it is true."

Pepper's arms fell to her lap and she sighed. She was not sure what she had expected from him. Everyone else had told her that they were not the ones that should be telling her the truth, if any existed, in Roy's words, which had made her even madder. On the other hand, she had also hoped Tony would tell her it was all true and that he had been entirely acting out of selfish intents and not due to honest worry for her, as this would have made it much easier on her part to sever all ties with him even if she was starting to like having his company.

"I should really send you back where you came from right now."

"You should," Tony said and gulped, eyes still on the floor.

"But I promised Gene I'd at least listen to you."

Tony chuckled bitterly. "I take it you and Gene are best buds again?"

"Best buds? I thought _you_ were my best friend."

"I was, but you also had a little crush on Gene and he sometimes overrode our friendship."

_That's ironic_, the redhead thought with a shake of the head. "Whatever," she finally said. "Why don't you just tell me the truth?"

"I can't tell you everything yet. Not until you're ready."

"Just tell me enough to clear this up. I don't want to make a decision about what comes next before you tell me the truth."

"OK. That's fair," he nodded, hope coming back to him and he looked up at her. She was now staring at the wall before her, but from the corner of her eye she could tell he was gazing intently at her. "I was…I was going to tell you a lot of it today, anyway. You would've found out most of it when I took you home with me."

"To Stark Tower?" She asked, remembering the name of the place Rhodey had said Tony lived in.

"No. I was going to have you live with me at the place I used to live before my mom died."

"Why?"

"Because Stark Tower is noisy, busy and in the middle of the city, and I didn't want you to feel overwhelmed. I don't want to push you to try to remember everything, or try to take it all in at once. It's too much and I don't want you to suffer like that."

"Does your dad live at the tower or at your other place?"

Tony shrugged. "Mostly at the tower because it's easier to go to work like that, but he does visit the mansion once a month to make sure it's being maintained."

"A-a-a _mansion_? You…you're taking me to live at a _mansion_?"

"I can get us an apartment, if you prefer."

"Whoa, Tony, stop. I…" she held her head in between her hands. Tony was absolutely right. Taking in everything at once was painful to her. "Let's just start at the beginning, OK. How…how the hell did I even meet you? Why would you…why would you hang around someone like me in the first place?"

"It's complicated, Pepper."

"Then _un_-complicate it."

Tony scratched the back of his neck and took a deep breath, trying to put his thoughts in order. This was more than what he had planned on telling her today, but after Roy opening his mouth there was no other choice but to let her know some of the things he had been keeping from her. "Alright," he sighed. "For a time, a couple of years ago, I was an orphan."

"W-what? But, your dad, you said he lives and…_what_?"

"Just, please, listen," he said and she immediately pursed her lips and nodded. "Two years ago, my dad and I were traveling in one of the company jets. We went to a company dig to test a new invention of ours and on our way back we had an accident. The jet…it crashed."

Pepper bit her lip to keep inside the dozens of questions that were forming in her head and only gave him a slight nod when she realized he was waiting to see if she was still following along.

"Even though they never found his body, my dad was presumed dead and I was missing. I was found a couple of weeks later but my heart had suffered massive damage from the crash; the doctors didn't think I was going to make it."

Pepper felt the shifting of the bed when Tony stood up and began pacing in front of her. In the brief moment it took him to order his thoughts again, a quick memory of their first long encounter returned to her.

"_I mean, I get the Sudoku book, but who gives a video game console and a fancy MP3 player as gifts for just being in the hospital?"_

"_I do?" he half-stated, half-asked. "I've spent my fair share of time in hospitals and I know how boring it can get to lay in a bed for days with nothing else to do."_

"_When have you ever been to a hospital? Are you sick?"_

"_I, uhm," he placed his left hand on his chest and patted it twice. "I had a heart condition for a few years, but now I'm cured."_

"_Cured? Did you get a transplant?"_

"_Something like that, yes."_

As the memory ended she jumped to the floor, almost forgetting she had a cast. Tony immediately ran up to her and held her by the elbows to help her steady herself, and she took advantage of the proximity to open the snap button fasteners of his entire shirt and then stared at his bare chest.

She pressed her right palm onto his heart and then closed her eyes when another foreign memory came to her. She was standing in a room with dark, metal walls, and Tony was standing a few feet in front of her, wearing nothing but blue jeans. There was a pile of a black substance around his feet, and he was in an apparent state of shock before he spoke: _"My heart feels…warm again."_

The call of her name snapped her back to reality and she looked up at him. "You…you had an implant and…then it was gone."

Tony nodded to her and slowly led her back to the bed before he took a step back and started buttoning up his shirt. He looked away to hide his blush and hoped she had not felt how fast his heart had been beating when her hands were over his chest. "Yes. I had to live with it for a while, but I was able to get rid of it."

Pepper nodded dumbly at him as another memory tried to come back to her, something regarding the implant, but as quick as the memory had tried to appear, it was gone. "I'm sorry. I...continue. I just…sorry…"

"It's alright," he finished buttoning up his shirt. "If things start coming back to you, let me know."

Pepper nodded again.

"So," he resumed his pacing when he noticed Pepper was no longer looking lost and confused. "My dad's will said for me to go to school. I'd never gone to school before, but I knew Rhodey since I was five and I knew he went to the Tomorrow Academy. Roberta's my dad's lawyer, and she and David became my legal guardians. I lived with the Rhodes for almost two years, and I met you at the Academy. You already knew Rhodey."

The ginger remembered that piece of information from before. Rhodey had even confirmed it for her after Tony had told her about it a few days ago.

"_You, Rhodey and I used to hang around all the time; during and after school. Rhodey and I have been friends since we were five, and you had an interest in solving crime with computers and hacking them, and I'd been teaching you how to do that in a much easier and more efficient way."_

"_Really? I was a computer nerd like you? AND you taught me how to break the law? And my dad was OK with it?"_

_ Tony smirked. "He doesn't know about that part."_

"I didn't make many friends at school. Most kids didn't talk to me because of who I was; who I still am. Only you and Rhodey seemed to be the ones to treat me like I was just another normal kid; just like you."

"So," Pepper said, piecing some of the information together. "You didn't make a lot of friends, but you did make enemies."

"Yes, a lot of enemies; some tried to blackmail me, some tried attacking me, some even put a price on my head. But I always made it out; always found a way to outsmart them. One of my greater enemies was Obadiah Stane; he was left in charge of my dad's company until I turned 18, but he had no intention of giving the company back to me. Eventually the company was bought by another company, and everything I had was taken away from me: my trust fund, my inheritance, my dad's life's work."

Tony paused for a moment to let his words sink in and then spoke again when Pepper nodded at him to continue. "I thought I had nothing else left, but then you and Rhodey kept telling me it was not the end of the world, and it wasn't. I still had my brains and you two, so we all started our own company."

"Stark Solutions," Pepper said, thinking about her phone.

"Yes. I started getting back on track, inventing lots of stuff and selling them like hot bread, and then my dad appeared and got the company back. It seemed as if everything was getting better and…" he exhaled and stopped pacing. "…and I slipped. I got too comfortable, too content, and I forgot there were still people out there wanting to hurt me. One of them poisoned my dad – almost killed him for real this time – but I was able to save him."

Pepper stared up to look at him and he was staring back at her with that same look she had seen on him whenever they spoke about what had occurred to her. She now understood what that look meant and she felt disgusted with herself for ever doubting Tony's intentions. She now understood why he had scrutinized her body when he had first seen her awake that day she had again opened her eyes.

"This person," he continued, eyes glued to hers. "This enemy of mine…" he swallowed hard, "is the same one who targeted you."

Pepper looked down at her lap, taking in his words as he continued. "Instead of taking vengeance directly onto me, they went after the people I care about. First, my dad; and then, you."

Pepper felt as if an ice cube was being slid up and down her spine. She stared down at her now recovered skin on her palms. She had woken up to seeing two identical burn marks running across her hands and she had wondered what could have possibly made them. She now had a better idea of what could have caused them, although the source of said injuries was not the one she was thinking about. "I was attacked?"

"Kidnapped. Taken. Right under my nose and by the time I figured it out it was almost too late for you."

"_Then what did I do? What could I have possibly done that is unspeakable?"_

_Tony sighed and shook his head. "It's…it was nothing__** you**__ did, Pepper."_

"_Patricia."_

"_Patricia," he said. "Something was __**done**__ to you."_

_Something was done to me_, she repeated in her mind and stared up at him. "Was it you? Were you the one to get me back?"

He nodded. "Me and Gene. I…I searched for days, Pepper. I swear to you that if I'd known sooner, I'd gotten you out that much quicker. I just…I didn't know. None of us knew. It was done so…perfectly…almost flawlessly…I…I…" He looked down and exhaled again.

He heard her stand up from the bed again and he sighed, walking up to her wobbly body to hold her by the elbows again. "Stop doing that," he whispered. "You're going to get hurt," he chastised her but the deflated tone in which he had said the words did not show he was angry but worried and sad.

Pepper eyed his hung head and slouched shoulders and she furrowed her brows. She swallowed hard and then slowly slid her hands over his arms until they reached his shoulders and pressed her body against his. She heard him gasp in relief and he surrounded her waist with his arms, shamelessly taking in deep breaths of her perfume. They both closed their eyes and remained in the other's arms as another memory returned to Pepper.

"_Oh," she responded and narrowed her eyes. This she had not expected. "Was it…was it someone I knew?"_

"_Yes," he admitted and they became quiet again. Pepper pulled herself away from his back and then hunched her back as she considered her next words._

"_What happened to the person?"_

"_Locked away."_

"_Was it," she gulped. "Was it my boyfriend?"_

"_No."_

"Tony?" she whispered to him.

"Yeah?"

"I, uh, I don't…I don't blame you for it."

"I wouldn't blame you if you did."

"I know but…I don't. I just…I just want to forget it and move on."

This time, it was Tony's turn to go down memory lane to the first time Gene had spoken to him about Pepper's condition after she had first woken up. The news that the ginger had opened her eyes had spread like wildfire among the worried family and friends, and Tony had been pissed as hell that she had woken up when he had taken a quick bathroom break.

_"What do you mean I can't see her right now?" An angry inventor asked Gene. Tony had ran back in the direction of the room when Rhodey had sent him the text message that Pepper had opened her eyes, but his fast-paced trek back to her room was halted by Gene Khan._

_ "Look, Stark, there's something you need to know before you decide to see her again…ever." He answered and pushed the hand on Tony's chest even harder than before to force the genius into a hall away from the prying eyes of the nurses and doctors behind them._

_ "What is it? What's wrong?" Tony slapped away Gene's arm and took a step back. "Whatever you're gonna tell me better be the truth, Gene, or we're going to go some rounds; you and me."_

_ "Let's leave our differences out of this for now. Stop acting like a spoiled brat and listen for once."_

_ Tony groaned and threw his hands up in the air. "Fine. What's wrong with her?"_

_ "She forgot."_

_ "What?" Tony furrowed his brows in anger and folded his arms over his chest. "What the fuck are you talking about?"_

_ "Pepper. She doesn't remember a thing."_

_ "Of what happened to her?"_

_ "Of anything. She doesn't even remember who she is."_

_ It took Tony a moment to process the information, but the moment his shoulders slumped and his arms fell to his sides, Gene knew the reality of the situation had hit the young billionaire. "Is it…is it permanent?"_

_ "Maybe, maybe not. The doctors are going to run some tests to rule out physical causes."_

_ "But," Tony shook his head. "But if it's not a physical issue, then what else could it be?"_

_ Gene sighed, shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand. "I'm not a doctor, Stark. You should be asking them, not me."_

_ "Bullshit!" Tony spat. "Don't try to suddenly pretend you don't care about what's happening to her. You could've let them tell me, but you're here, stopping me from seeing her, telling me what's wrong. So now, are you going to tell me what else it could be or do I have to beat it out of you? Did you cause this? Did you use the rings to make her forget?"_

_ "Don't be ridiculous! I didn't do that! Believe me; I played with the idea of ripping her away from you. You're no good for her, at all! But I didn't. This was all her own doing."_

_ "What do you mean?"_

_ "If…IF the cause for her memory loss is not physical or medically related, then she made herself forget it all."_

_ "How can she even do that?"_

_ "It's rare but possible, or so the doctors said, that her mind blocked her memories to prevent her from experiencing a total breakdown. Sometimes people forget about doing things because they don't want to remember, because it's too painful for them. Sometimes horrible things are done to them, and the body's only coping mechanism is to pretend those things never happened in the first place."_

_ Tony looked away from Gene for a moment, knowing exactly what he had meant. Pepper had wanted to forget it all, forget the last month of her high school life and everything and everyone in it. She had told him that, and he had scoffed at the idea, taking her cry for help as nothing more than a toned-down way of breaking up with him. "So, you're pretty much telling me that Pepper wants to leave it all behind."_

_ Gene shrugged. "Sure, you can say that."_

_ "Does that mean Whitney's shit out of luck?"_

_ Gene grinned. "She's rotting there."_

_ "That's…that's a little unfair, don't you think? I mean, she screwed up big time…she….she fucked up, to put it bluntly, but I've never let my enemies be lost like that. She needs to be charged, tried and sentenced…fairly."_

_ "And she was charged, tried and sentenced fairly…by me."_

_ Tony covered his face with his hands and groaned. "This is too much. I'll never forgive Whitney, but this is not something Pepper would approve. Do you have any idea what she'll say to me when she finds out I let Whitney be permanently high on whatever Makluan drugs you injected her with?"_

_ "Do you think I care if Pepper doesn't agree with what I did?"_

_ "You care enough about Pepper to have come help me find her."_

_ "Yes, I care for her, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with what she thinks is right. Do you even know what Whitney did to her because of YOU?" Gene pointed an accusing finger toward the inventor._

_ "I already told you she told me most of it, alright? I have a vague idea of the torture Whitney put Pepper through!"_

_ "Then maybe what you need is not just a vague idea, but Pepper's view of it."_

_ "What do –" Tony's question was interrupted by Gene placing his right hand on top of Tony's head as he had done with Whitney in the interrogation room, and blasted him with images, smells, feelings and sensations of what Pepper had endured in captivity._

_ Tony snapped his eyes shut, his hands flying to the sides of his head as he lost the strength of his legs and ended up on his knees. Gene did not show him any mercy, however, and kept his hold on the genius. Tony began screaming loudly in obvious pain, and he almost pulled his hair out of his head. The cries for help coming from the inventor were almost unbearable, but thanks to Gene's power no one other than the two of them ever saw or heard what was happening between them._

_ When Gene finished putting Tony through the ordeal Pepper had survived, he finally let go of him and Tony all but collapsed faced down onto the cold floor, taking quick gasps and whining, all while he shivered and tears ran down his eyes. Gene did not even attempt to help Tony come to his senses and just crouched next to his face. "Do you still think whatever I did to Whitney is not fair?"_

_ Tony tried to say something but he could not. All that came out of his mouth were small whimpers of pain so he resorted to shaking his head._

_ "Pepper might still remember everything one day, so it's not like it's going to be permanent. Whitney's fate, however, that's going to be permanent, no matter if Pepper thinks otherwise."_

_ Tony clenched his jaw to keep another round of painful sobs from coming out. He was trying to concentrate on Gene's words and the present time, but all his mind could focus on was the first-hand taste Gene had so graciously given him of Pepper's captivity experience. Had she really suffered this much or had Gene amplified the pain? How was Pepper able to withstand this? Had the hope she had in him to find her and save her really been so great that she had pushed herself to continue living even if it was only to die like this?_

_ Gene waited a few more minutes in his crouching position before he removed the shield that was blocking them from view. He then stood up and turned on his heels with the intent of leaving Tony to recover by himself, but the inventor grabbed onto the bottom of his pants, this being the only movement he could muster at this point._

_ "Whitney…" he took in a deep breath. "She…she rots…she rots there…"_

_ "And you let Pepper go," Gene said looking down at Tony's still trembling form._

_ The hold on Gene's pants tightened at his words, and for a moment the Great Khan thought Tony was readying himself to fight back but when Tony finally let go of him and had enough strength to pull himself up on all fours, Gene knew what was going to be said before Tony even uttered the words._

_ "Yes," he said between gasps. "I…I let her go…"_

_ Gene eyed Tony for the slightest hint that he was going to take back his words, but when he just placed his fists on his knees and closed his eyes tightly, Gene knew Tony had given up on romantically pursing the redhead ever again. Without another word, Gene turned around and walked away, and no one heard from Tony until Rhodey had found him sitting by the bench in the back garden of the hospital, staring intently at a funeral procession before them._

Pepper pulled back from him and Tony returned to reality. She gave him a smile and cupped his face with her hands. "Thank you, Tony. Thank you for watching over me."

Tony swallowed the lump in his chest and stared down at her, wanting nothing more than to lean down and kiss her. He knew he could not, however. Despite what he had told Rhodey about trying to win her heart again, Tony had already decided to not let their relationship be something other than one of friendship; he just had not told anyone other than Gene Khan.

"That's what friends are for," he told her and set her down on the bed again before he took a step back. "So, are you all ready to go?"

"Yes," she replied with another smile even though she felt something was still being left unsaid between them. Something was still off and she was now seeing what it was. The way he had embraced her, the way he stared at her…the way she felt when he was around…there was something more…something important he was still keeping from her; something that directly connected to the memory of them holding hands that had hit her a couple of days ago. Pepper was young, quirky and currently suffered from memory loss, but that did not make her stupid.

Or blind.

"Tony, can I ask you a question?" She said and bit her tongue to keep her voice as steady as possible.

"Sure," he said over his shoulder as he walked around her bed and began picking up the bag from the floor and placed it on the bed. "Do you want me to put these gifts in here?" he pointed to the bag.

"Uh, yes, please," she responded and watched as he began doing as asked. She swallowed hard and remained silent until he zipped up the bag. She opened her mouth to ask her question but she was interrupted when Dr. Ross and Nurse Owens walked inside the room pushing a wheelchair.

"Right on time," Tony said and walked over to the medical staff, Pepper's bag across his chest. The nurse pushed the chair closer to Pepper and between the doctor and Tony they helped her sit in it before The Oven relinquished control of the chair to Tony Stark.

"Here," Dr. Ross said and handed Tony a small business card. "I faxed the prescriptions for her medicine to this pharmacy. You can either pick up her pain medicine on your way home, or you can have them sent to your place via mail. She has enough pills to last her the week, and the pharmacy has very fast shipping."

"Thanks, Dr. Ross," Tony said, grabbed the card and placed it on his back pocket. "Anything else we should know?"

"She still needs to rest her leg, but Miss Potts should start moving around more in small increments. Nurse Owens has made an appointment for her with me in two weeks to remove the cast."

"What's the actual date of the appointment?" Pepper asked in an attempt to become part of the conversation that was taking place as if she was not even there.

"I'll e-mail Mr. Stark the reminder," Nurse Owens said before she excused herself and left the room. Tony took her parting as his cue that they could start walking away and began pushing Pepper on the wheelchair while Dr. Ross walked at a matching pace next to him down the hall and out of the room.

"I recommend Ms. Potts doesn't engage in any activity that may demand extreme attention or physically push her limits for at least three months," Dr. Ross said and eyed Tony in way Pepper dismissed as doctor exaggeration talk before she looked away from them and stared at whatever was in front of her. The inventor, however, knew exactly what the doctor had meant: no superhero business for the redhead until she was better – much better.

"Don't worry about it. I've hired someone to do the house chores," Tony responded and the doctor nodded, also understanding the code between them. It was true, nonetheless, that Tony had hired – or rehired – a person to take care of the mansion for them, but he and Rhodey had also made it clear that Pepper was not coming back to Rescue business until she regained her handle on the suit.

"Marvelous," the doctor said and pressed the down button for Tony and Pepper who were now inside the elevator. "That's it for me," he continued and eyed Pepper with an honest smile. "I know it was not the best of experiences for you, Miss Potts, but I'm happy that I got to meet you. You'll be better than new in no time, especially after I get that cast off you."

"You better not cancel that appointment on me."

"I won't," he said with a chuckle and a wave of the hand. "See you later."

"Bye, Dr. Ross," both teen said in unison as the door closed. Now that they were alone, Pepper's nervousness returned to her and she again had to bite down on her lip to steady her voice.

"Tony, can I now ask you the question?"

"Uh, yeah! Sorry, I forgot you had one. What is it?"

"I, well, ahem…" she cleared her throat, not sure how to bring up the conversation now that the moment had been ruined but her curiosity got the best of her. "You said that your enemies came after the people you cared about."

"Right."

"And, they first came after your dad, and then me but…but wouldn't it make more sense if they came after your…girlfriend, first? You know, before your best friend?"

Tony's grip on the handles of the wheelchair tightened. "It would've, if I'd had a girlfriend at the time."

"Oh," she said and began wringing her hands on her lap. "Did you ever have one?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"She broke up with me."

"Oh! Were you OK with it?"

"Pretty much. It wasn't that serious, anyway."

Pepper's heart began beating even faster at his response. She closed her eyes and remembered their previous conversation of a similar topic.

"_Did I even have a boyfriend?"_

"_No."_

"_Ever?"_

"_You dated a guy in school, but nothing serious ever came out of it. You actually broke it off with him a few days before it happened."_

"_Why did I break it up?"_

"_You didn't like him like that anymore."_

"_Oh. I guess, I guess that's a good reason. How did he take it?"_

"_He was OK with it."_

_Pepper scoffed. "No wonder it never got serious. I probably didn't like him as much and he didn't either."_

"_Maybe."_

"What's her name?" She asked after a short silence.

"What?" Tony asked, having lost himself in his own thoughts as well.

"Your ex-girlfriend, what's her name?"

The elevator finally hit the ground floor and he began wheeling her out of the small room and into the hall before he spoke again. "Whitney," he said and they finally reached the parking lot. "Whitney Stane."

Pepper nodded even though he could not see her face. "That was your only girlfriend, ever?"

"Yup."

"How come?"

"Didn't like anyone else," he lied and pressed the button on his keychain to unlock his car. He then opened the passenger's door and carried Pepper from the chair to the seat before he began folding the wheelchair and tossed it inside the trunk along with her bag.

She stared at him using all of the mirrors on the car until he finally jumped inside the driver's seat and started the car.

"How about now? Do you like anyone now?"

Tony shifted the gear from parking to reverse and looked back as he slowly set the vehicle in motion. Once he was out of the parking spot he shifted gears again and began slowly making their way out of the parking lot.

"I do," he finally said and stole a quick glance at her, trying not to let her hopeful face make him change his mind.

"What's her name? Is her last name also the same as that guy who took your dad's company?" She asked, feeling momentarily proud to have made the connection all by herself.

He stopped for a moment by the exit of the parking lot before joining the busy midday streets. They only traveled a few feet before they had to stop again at a traffic light. "Not at all," he said with a shake of the head and swallowed hard. "Her last name's Hansen. Maya Hansen."

"Oh," Pepper said and silence was all that was heard in the car after that.

* * *

**A/N:** If you want to see the box Gene got her, check out my profile :) If you want a small **sneak preview** of a random part of **the next chapter** before it's posted AND if you have a FFNET account, let me know you want the sneak peek in your review and I will PM it to you. Oh, and Maya Hansen…hehe…hehehe…hehe…


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hi, All! I've decided to post this chapter WAY earlier for TWO reasons. ONE: One of my Faithful Readers that reviews a lot has a birthday coming up on Sunday (Congrats, Emma-lovatic! 3333 Happy Birthday! Here's your present!).

And, TWO: I have a **question for everyone reading this**: do you prefer that I post the chapters more often than about 5-6 days in between AND then wait a couple of months for the next story; OR, do you prefer that I keep the current posting pace of 5-6 days and then NOT have to wait months between this story and the next?

Let me know!

* * *

**Chapter 4**

The mansion was even bigger than she had thought it would be, and it was secluded two hours away from the city. If she had not seen it herself with her own two eyes, she would have not believed that there was no one else around them for miles in either direction; it was just the two of them and Edwin Jarvis. Or just, Jarvis; he was the person Tony had rehired to keep the Stark Estate in its best condition.

Tony had informed Pepper on their drive to their new home that the man had worked in this mansion and for his family for many years until Tony's mother had died. In fact, Jarvis' parents and grandparents had all been serving the Starks for many generations. After both father and son decided to move to Stark Tower to make it easier on the both of them, Jarvis had been taking care of the mansion once a month. Needless to say, he was happy to return to his old occupation as the butler and caregiver for the Stark family even if it was somewhat bittersweet that Maria Stark was no longer around.

"I don't think I've ever had a butler before, right?" Pepper said as Tony set the car to a stop at the entrance of the home where Jarvis was already waiting for them. "That's going to feel weird."

"You get used to it," he assured her and unbuckled his seat belt. "And Jarvis is like no other butler I've ever known of. I actually missed him a lot after we moved to Stark Tower."

Pepper unbuckled her seat belt as well and waited for Tony to come around to her side of the car to hand her either her crutches or the wheelchair, but he ended up surprising her by bringing neither. He opened the door to her side and leaned over her by resting his arms on either side of the vehicle and smiled, his face ending inches from hers.

"I have a surprise for you."

"What is it?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"A surprise; didn't I just say that?" He smirked and she rolled her eyes. "Close your eyes."

"Oh-kay," she said and did as told. "You better not be naked when I open my eyes, Tony."

Tony scoffed. "You wish."

Pepper could not help to smile at his retort, even though she had to admit she was a little disappointed that her suspicions that she and Tony had dated had been completely stomped by him. It was not as if she was head over heels for him or anything, but she had seen the potential for them to become something more since it appeared that the rapport between them was rather good. To be honest with herself, it had actually given her a little bit of a hopeful feeling just thinking about the possibility of dating Tony. Fortunately – or unfortunately, in her case – she could ascertain that the situation would never present itself based on their brief discussion when they left the hospital. She, nevertheless, was fine with it.

_Oh, well_, she thought to herself, eyes still closed. _I probably already had this feeling before when I first met him and got over it. I mean, he is very cute and sweet. If I could get over it before, I can do it again._

She knew the boy was rather attractive; that was painfully obvious for anyone with two working eyes, so the fact that she had somewhat developed a small crush on the inventor was not unexpected to her. _It's best if we keep it as friends, anyway, especially if we're going to live together for a while._

"Open your eyes," she heard him say and she did but only to shake her head in confusion.

"What the heck is that? Another wheelchair? We got one right there," she pointed to the back.

"This is more than a wheelchair, Pep," he began and carried her out of the seat and onto his latest invention. "I…it doesn't have a name yet, but I've been calling it the Pep Ride."

Pepper laughed so hard she began to cry. "The Pep Ride? Really?"

"Yeah," he smiled and shrugged. "What do you think?"

"I think it's a wheelchair."

"Ugh, Pepper!" he groaned and stood to her right. "Look, let me show you," he said and double tapped the arm rest of the wheelchair to reveal a hidden control panel.

"What the hell, Tony? Did you pimp out this chair?"

Tony made a face that said 'of course,' before he returned his attention to explaining some of the features of the automated wheelchair. "Look, these are your basic motion buttons," he pointed to four arrows at the top of the control panel. "Just like the arrows show, these are for you to go front, back, left and right."

"Left and right?" she furrowed her brows. "How can I go laterally in a wheelchair? Wheelchairs don't do that."

"Mine does," he said with tone that suggested he could not believe she did not understand how ingenious he was sometimes. "Look, just press this red button here to turn on the chair, but don't press anything else, alright?"

"OK," she said and with hesitation pressed the red button. She immediately felt the wheelchair begin to shake but not violently and before she knew what was happening, her feet were off the ground by a foot. She stared down all around the chair and then at Tony with wide eyes. "Am I flying?"

"Levitating, would describe it best. I used the same repulsor and anti-gravity technologies I used in some my other inventions and created a propulsion system that allows the chair to move freely in any direction you may want."

"Holy…" the redhead words trailed. She did not quite follow Tony's explanation but she knew she did not have to understand it all when she was seeing what the wheelchair could do. "Any direction? Can I go up?"

"You could, but I put a limit on that so that you don't hurt yourself."

"Boo! You know me too well."

"Yes, I do. But, you can go diagonally, if you'd like."

"Really? How?"

"Just press two directional buttons simultaneously."

Pepper eyed the buttons with some distrust but she still pressed the back and left arrows at the same time. The wheelchair responded to the command and it moved diagonally away from Tony. She gasped in excitement and then pressed the opposite arrows and returned to her original spot. "This is awesome! How come you didn't give this to me at the hospital? I'd have won those Olympics I organized!"

Tony chuckled. "I just finished it this morning."

"Oh…wait, what? Am I your guinea pig for this floating chair?"

"Of course not! The prototype was tested by the guy who asked me to create the chair in the first place; some Professor of some school or something like that. He was not very specific about the details other than he runs a school and needs a wheelchair to move around. Jean Grey was the one who introduced me to him."

"Oh, OK. I don't know who Jean Grey is, but alright. What else can it do?"

"Take a look at these three buttons here," he pointed to three blue buttons below the arrows. "This first one is for velocity. This middle one is for height. And this third one is for inclination."

"OK, what does the inclination one, do?"

"If you're going up a ramp or something at an angle that goes above the hover limit and you can't just go higher to reach the upper level, you can adjust its position to whatever inclination you need so that the chair doesn't scrape the ground as you hover it along the ramp."

"Oh, I see. OK, OK, this is easy. I think."

"I'm working on a voice command feature so that you don't have to press the buttons at all, but I might not have it ready until after you don't need the chair anymore."

"I'll still test it, if you need."

"Alright. That's pretty much all you need to know for now." He said and then walked to the trunk of the car to collect Pepper's bag. He then returned to where she stood and she followed him to the entrance. Jarvis gave the ginger a small bow and then extended his hand to her.

"Miss Potts, it's a pleasure to meet you," he spoke with a suave British accent, then he kissed the back of her hand and then let it go. Pepper giggled and then used the chair to "bow down" as best as she could before speaking again.

"The pleasure is mine, Mr. Jarvis."

"Just 'Jarvis' would suffice, Miss."

"Then just 'Pepper' would suffice, Jarvis."

"How about: Miss Pepper?"

"I guess…for now…" she winked at him and he gave her an understanding smile before he moved out of the entrance and let the two teens walk inside.

Once inside, Pepper recognized that the exterior of the mansion did not do justice to the glamour that was inside. The home had tall with vaulted ceilings, and almost every piece of furniture was made out of real, thick wood. The décor was very elegant but simplistic, and she could already tell she would easily get lost inside even if she lived there every day for a year and visited one room each week. "Is there a map or a GPS in this thing?" Pepper pointed to the wheelchair. "I may need an alert to come get rescued when I get lost looking for the bathroom."

"It does have a tracking system," Tony said with a smirk. "But not a map of the house. I can add one if you'd like, but you won't be needing it to find the bathroom. You'll have one in your room."

"Really? That's awesome!" She responded and clapped, and Tony chuckled. Jarvis then excused himself, letting them know lunch would be served within half an hour and Tony took this time to give her a small tour of the main rooms in the home. He took her to the living room, the kitchen and the dining area on the first floor before they went up the stairs to the bedrooms area and other available rooms on the second floor.

"There's a library on the third floor, and a small lab I've been building so I can work from home. The elevator is at the end of the hall and the code to go up is 1357. The code to enter the lab is 09172009 but I need to add your thumbprint to the database before you can use it."

The ginger nodded to him once and repeated the numbers in her mind for later recall. The first code was easy because it was just the first four odd numbers all in a row. The second code was longer and did not make any sense at first, but after repeating it in her mind in different ways she ventured a guess at what it could possibly mean.

"09172009? Is that standing for September 17, 2009?"

"Uhm, yeah, it is. Why?" He eyed her nervously as they continued walking down the hall of the second floor until they reached the third door before the last on the left side of the hall.

"Is that date significant to you?" She asked but did not immediately receive a response when Tony opened the door they had just arrived at and pushed it open.

"It's the first day I went to the Academy," he said and felt as if he was lying to her even though his response was partially correct. The true reason why he had chosen that code was because not only was it the same one Pepper had used to keep the _Private Eye_ file locked, but it was also the day he and Pepper had first met.

"Ah! I see. That'll be easy to remember," she said and then concentrated on taking in the large room that was now before her. "Are you sure this is my room?"

"Yup."

"Is this only one room, seriously?" She asked, noting how large the bedroom was. There was a small living area in the middle of the room, complete with a flat screen television and a mini fridge. To the left were a few doors she figured were probably closets or a bathroom, and to the right were double-doors she assumed led to the main bedroom. "It's like an apartment."

"Guess so," he said and walked over to the living room to drop off her luggage on the couch. "Do you need help unpacking?"

She shook her head and joined him. "I've got it. With this wheelchair I don't think I'll need a lot of help around here, anyway. Although, I'm seriously thinking about breaking my other leg so that I can keep using it. It's so comfy and convenient!"

Tony laughed and rolled his eyes. "Don't do that, please."

"I won't."

"Well, I'll leave you alone so you can take a break before lunch is ready. Do you know how to get back?"

"Yeah, I think so," she said and then adjusted the chair to help her stand up. Tony walked over to her to help her regain her balance and she took the opportunity to hug him tightly. The inventor wasted no time returning the embrace and closed his eyes. He then rested the side of his face on hers, and she pulled him closer to her. "Thank you for doing this for me, Tony. You are the best friend anyone could ask for."

"It's nothing, Pepper. I'm glad I can do something for you for a change. It's always been you helping me."

"It doesn't matter. You don't really have to do this, and I know you were already comfortable at the tower. If you want, as soon as my leg is better, we can move to the tower so that you don't have to drive back and forth every day. Two hours is a long time."

Tony pulled away slightly to stare at her face but did not let go of her. "Are you serious, Pepper?"

"Yeah. Besides, it's probably easier to see that girl you like if you're back where you lived before, right? I think your closest neighbor here is, like, 10 miles away."

Tony gave her a forced smile, still regretting his decision to bring up someone he did not even like in the first place. Maya Hansen was the daughter of one of the main researchers at Stark International, and she had been visiting her father almost every day, taking advantage of the summer vacation. The young woman had shown interest in the genius since the first day she had shown up at the tower, but Tony had avoided her as much as possible. It was not as if the brunette was not gorgeous; she truly was, not to mention how smart she was. Had Pepper not been in the picture, he had no doubt he would have probably asked the girl out at some point.

Then again, dating Pepper was no longer an option for him.

"Don't worry about my romantic life, Pepper. I'm a terrible boyfriend. I got dumped, remember?"

"Well, the more reason to help you out. If you suck at relationships, then we have to work on fixing that before you go to college."

Tony shrugged. "I guess we can work on that but I care more about you getting better."

"Just wait until I get this cast removed. You're never going to know where I am."

"Jarvis doesn't like to be guessing where we are. He'll call you."

"Really?" She chuckled. "Well, then he'll know where I am, but you…meh, you aren't my dad."

"Pepper, when we were in school, not even your dad knew where you were half of the time."

"Oh, really? Where was I?"

"With me," he said with a proud smile and it was then he realized they were still in each other's arms. He cleared his throat and pulled away from her but not before helping her back into the chair. "I have to make some phone calls before lunch. My dad's coming over, by the way. He should be here any minute."

"Cool! I'll get to meet him…again, I guess. What's his name?"

"Howard."

"OK. But, I guess I call him Mr. Stark?"

Tony shook his head. "You do, but he likes to be called by his first name."

"OK. I'll try."

"Anyway, I gotta go. See you at lunch, Pep."

"See you, Tony." Pepper responded and saw the inventor leave her room and closed the door behind him.

xxxXXXxxx

"That's great that your company is sponsoring a children's hospital. If I didn't get queasy with gory stuff, I would've been a doctor." Pepper said to Howard Stark, remembering how she had almost thrown up at the hospital when she had watched a slasher film. "I wish I could go to the ceremony but I'd rather not move around that much."

After lunch, she and Howard had moved to the living room and were currently catching up with as much information the man could release to the ginger, and Tony had left them shortly after lunch had ended, claiming he had an emergency to tend to at his lab. He, of course, left out the part that the emergency was Iron Man-related.

"So, what's it like to be free from the hospital? Tony told me you compared it to a prison," Howard snickered.

"More like a maximum security facility," she shook her head. "I know they had to keep checking on me for my own good, but there is only so much monitoring I can take before I start losing it."

"Well, at least they let you out before your sentence was over," he pointed to her casted leg.

"Yup, that was a relief. I really wish you could've visited me while I was there, though."

Howard shrugged. "Tony and I decided it would be too much to visit you when you didn't know half of the people around you."

"That's that he told me. But one more person would've been fine, especially if it was you. It would make sense for me to meet the parents of all my friends, right?"

"I guess so, but you're here now and I'm always at the tower. So, when you visit us there please stop by my office."

"I will…if Tony lets me."

Howard sighed. "I know Tony means well, but you don't have to follow his every suggestion, you know? I think he's exaggerating, if you ask me."

"Sometimes I think so, too," she admitted. "But then he tells me stuff about my past and I get a headache and realize he's right."

"It's normal, Pepper. Sooner or later you will either learn everything or remember everything. I just hope my son doesn't make it worse by protecting you so much."

"I know what you mean. I wish he didn't feel so responsible for this. Clearly he didn't expect me to be kidnapped or whatever. And he found me, anyway, right? He did more than what he needed to do."

"Ah! So he told you how you ended up in the hospital?"

"A few details; only the overall idea, I think. That's all I need for now."

"Very well, as long as you're at ease with it. Are you comfortable here? Did he give you a nice room?"

"No, he gave me a penthouse," she jested. "Your house is very pretty."

"Maria decorated it," Howard said with a sad smile. "I haven't had the heart to change anything of what she did."

Pepper looked down at her lap and mentally slapped herself. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up a bad memory."

"You didn't. I'm happy that you like what Maria did. I like coming here sometimes just to remember her a little bit better."

"Do you have a picture of her?"

"Yes, I do," he answered and took out his wallet to show Pepper an old picture of he, Maria and a baby Tony.

"Aww! Tony's so cute!"

"Don't tell him I showed you his baby pictures; he'll kill me."

"Really? Aw, that's a shame! This is excellent blackmailing material."

Howard laughed aloud and put away his wallet. "It is. This is how I'm keeping him going to the board meetings."

Pepper laughed aloud. "Good strategy," she responded and then yawned. "Sorry, it's been a long day."

"It's alright. I need to get back to work anyway. Why don't you go take a nap?"

"I should," she said, feeling extremely lethargic all of sudden. "It was nice meeting you again, Mr. Stark."

"Howard," he said and stood up.

"Yes, sorry. Howard." Pepper responded and began following Howard out the door. "Thank you for letting me stay in your home. You really saved my life."

"It's nothing, Pepper. Just watch over my son and we can call it even. He sometimes forgets he is just a human being who needs to eat and sleep."

"Consider it done," she said and yawned again. "Sorry."

Howard shook his head again and patted her shoulder. "I'll see you later, Pepper."

"Later, Howard," she responded and remained still as she watched the man leave the premises before she returned to her room to sleep the rest of the day away.

xxxXXXxxx

A fucking, creepy stalker; that's how he felt because that was what he was right now: nothing more than an armored stalker using the stealth feature of his suit to watch Pepper in her sleep. Jarvis had informed him when he returned from his mission that the redhead had said she was going to take a nap, but that nap had now extended until the middle of the night. He doubted she would wake up until the morning, and he had to wonder how tired she truly had been all this time.

He knew he had reached a new level of pathetic actions but he did not care. He had already spent many nights awake, reliving the experience Gene had helped him understand and every single time he had wondered about Pepper's wellbeing in the hospital. Many nights he had snuck into her room in the middle of the night, just as he was right now, only to watch her breath and remind him she was still alive.

_How can I do this?_ He thought to himself and closed his eyes. _How the hell am I supposed to let her go?_

He had spent the last hour pondering the same question over and over again, and there was no solution in sight to his predicament. Pepper had become an indispensable part of his life – both as a friend and as the person he loved romantically– and he could not imagine living his life without her with him in at least one of the aforementioned capacities. Becoming friends again had been easy enough so far, and he had picked up on the possibility that Pepper was starting to see him in a new light, too, but he could not afford to be naïve about it. Pepper was safer not being romantically involved with him; being his friend was already dangerous enough.

His logical side told him that it was not up to him to make this choice for her. They were, or had been at some point, a couple and the decision to stop seeing each other should be one that involved both of their points of view. However, given the current circumstances, it was his decision and his decision alone to make.

He knew he would have wanted to have some say in whether they remained together if the tables were turned, but he was a coward and preferred not to delve in the possibility that she would choose to stay by his side despite the dangers, because that would entail her trusting him to make sure nothing got in their away again; he was too scared to break that trust and let her down – again. If she did stay and something even worse happened to her because of it, he would hate himself for the rest of his empty life, which would not be long once Gene Khan found out, anyway. He preferred never to let her that far into his heart ever again than face the facts that he felt inadequate to protect her.

And for that, he too hated himself. Where was the young man that did not back away from a challenge? Where was the young man that had survived in spite of the odds? When had he lost his nerve?

He did not have to think about it much. He knew he had lost part of his bravado when he had found her nearly-dead body in the submarine. There he had been, suited up and ready to take on anything, and nothing he had could have made it right for her; nothing ever would. He had been lucky Gene had been around to help him or he would have died searching for her.

However, at the end of the day all the pondering, all the wondering, all the musings, all the questions and possible worse-case scenarios in the world always came back down to a simple fact; and undeniable truth: he loved her. He truly and absolutely loved her – loved her too much to let her go.

_Maybe I don't have to let her go_, he thought. _Whitney, Stane and Zhang were the only ones that ever really tried attacking Pepper to get back at me or make me do something I didn't want to do. There are hardly any villains left thanks to Justin Hammer…and the ones that are around…Pepper could take them down on her own if she wanted to…some of them even without su —_

"Tony," he heard her whimper and his head snapped up to face her. He froze for a moment, his heart caught in his throat imagining what Pepper would do to him at finding out he was in her room in the middle of the night, but he then remembered he was invisible to the naked eye and relaxed. "No, please," she sobbed. "Tony, help me…"

"Pepper," he whispered in the comfort of his sound-proof suit. He stood up from his position by the window sill and walked over to her bed. She could only rest on her back while the cast was still on, so her face was not obstructed by anything. As he got closer to her he realized she was sweating profusely. Tears ran down her eyes and her hands held tightly onto the silky sheets of her bed.

"Stop, please…please…no more…"

_What's wrong with her?_ He asked himself as he leaned down to take a closer look at her form. From all the times he had watched her sleep at the hospital she had never once before behaved like this. She was grinding her teeth, whimpering painfully and her eyes were closed shut. _Is she having a nightmare?_

"NO!" She suddenly yelled and almost swatted Tony away when she threw her hands in the air. Tony took a step back and watched wide-eyed as she continued to thrash and her screams got louder and more painful-sounding. "Whitney! STOP!"

"Whitney? Oh, no…" His right hand flew to the center of his armor and retracted his suit into its backpack form. He then removed the backpack from himself and threw it on the floor before he ran to her side, kneeled on the bed and began shaking her.

"Pepper! Pepper, wake up! Open your eyes, Pepper!"

"NO! PLEASE! TONY! HEEEELP MEEE!"

"PEPPER!" He shook her shoulders a little harder this time. "I'm right here, Pepper. Wake up!"

Pepper unexpectedly sat up on the bed with a yelp and Tony surrounded her to keep her from injuring her leg. Her eyes then opened so wide they hurt and her fists found the front of his t-shirt. She was panting and staring at everything around her until her eyes landed on Tony when she finally felt his arms around her. "T-Tony?"

"Yes, it's me. Are you alright?"

He had expected his voice would calm her down some, but instead she began sobbing uncontrollably and pressed her face against this chest. "Oh, Tony! It…I thought I was alone…somewhere else…"

He could feel her body being ransacked by her sobs, and every time he heard her try to suppress a painful groan he hugged her tighter. "Pepper, shh," he kissed her forehead and began rocking her with him. "It's alright. It's gonna be OK," he said as he continued to place soft kisses over the top of her head, her forehead and even her eyes. "You're fine. I'm here. It's over."

For a moment she could not remember where she was or what she had been doing two seconds ago; all she knew is that she was scared beyond comparison and her heart was beating so fast she was afraid it would just suddenly stop. "What, uh…? Tony…I…Where am I?"

"Your room; at my house. You were having a bad dream," he replied and pulled her face from his chest only to use the back of his hand to dry her tears. "It's alright, Pepper. It was just a nightmare."

She nodded, did not move an inch and allowed him to straighten out her wrinkled blouse, brush her hair with his fingers and then cupped her face. He slowly shifted her gaze toward his face and he stared down at her eyes, trying to read in them how much she remembered from the dream but she shook her head as if she could read his mind.

"I don't know," she said and sniffled. "I don't know what it was."

"It doesn't matter. It's not real," he said, returned her face to his chest and absentmindedly slid his hand down her hair over and over. She exhaled loudly and took in deep, calming breaths, shamelessly enjoying the warmth and feeling of refuge his embrace provided him.

"Was I loud? Did I wake you?" She asked, eyes closed and then surrounded his waist with her arms. She was not sure why, but being here like this with him gave her a sense of déjà vu. "I'm sorry if I did."

"No, you weren't. You didn't wake me. I just got back," he lied and rested his chin over her head. "I was on my way to my room and heard you. I'm sorry I barged in here without permission."

Pepper chuckled. "Why would you need permission? It's your house."

"It's your room."

"A room you lent me for now. Besides…" she began and then stiffened up. She pulled away from his chest and stared up at him with a shocked face. "Wait, did you just say you just came back?"

"Yeah," he frowned.

"What do you mean you _just_ got back? What time is it?" her head moved left and right and when she realized he was blocking the view to her alarm clock she grabbed his left wrist and all but pressed it to her face. Her other hand found the button for the light of his watch and when she read the time she gasped. "What the hell, Tony? It's one in the morning!"

"So?" Tony groaned and pulled away his wrist from her grip, sending both of his arms around her waist again in an effort to keep her from staring at his watch. "My watch doesn't work."

"The hell it doesn't!" She spat and tried grabbing it again with her left hand, but he kept tightening his grip on her to keep her from twisting her body to grab it. When it dawned on her she was not getting anywhere, she returned her face to his and saw their noses were nearly touching. "Y-you," she licked her lips when she felt his breath tickling her skin. "You shouldn't…it's too late…"

There was much more she wanted to say to him about her obvious disapproval regarding him working until the wee hours of the morning but the words were slipping away with her sanity. She had promised Howard she would watch over him but it was difficult for her to scold him when he was so close to her. It did not help that he was staring down at her again in the same way that had clued her of the possibility that they had once been more than friends, and again the shadow of doubt was casted upon her.

She exhaled again, lowered her face a tad and closed her eyes, willing herself to calm down. She needed to get a grip on herself if she was going to keep her promise to his ol' man. She reminded herself that Tony had already implied there had never been anything between them other than a treasured friendship, but the ease in which she had found the perfect spot in his arms was louder than his words.

Tony, on the other hand, was having an internal battle of his own. Here he was, with Pepper's face inches from his, and he could not kiss her. The embrace was very familiar to him; it reminded him of the time they had hugged across the window in her room when he had flown there to apologize to her for his words and actions regarding Happy. For a moment he wondered if the very few moments they had shared as a couple in the past would have been as important to her as they were to him if she remembered them again one day. Did she also almost still taste his lips like he did hers? Did her skin tingle when it brushed against his? Did her heart skip a beat when he looked at her?

He was not sure what the answers to these questions were, and given the current situation they truly did not matter in the end. She did not remember them being together and he had to act as if he did not care for it either even though he kept stiffening his neck to stop himself from leaning down now that her eyes were shut. He closed his eyes himself and shook his head to clear his thoughts before he finally pulled away from her.

"Having your own company does that to you. Sometimes you have to work late," he said and stood up from the bed. Pepper's eyes immediately snapped open and followed his every move as he bent down, picked up his backpack from the floor and began walking around the bed and headed towards the door.

"It doesn't make it healthy," she said and hugged herself, his absence chilling her to the bone. "Or mean that you should do it often," she added after she remembered how Howard had mentioned that Tony's overworking habits were commonplace.

Tony gave her a one-sided shrug. "It can't be helped if you're a one-man company."

Pepper tilted her head to the side and stared at him up and down a few times before she forced herself to look away and down at her lap. "It probably doesn't help that you have to commute for two hours. I…I'm partially to blame for this. Why, uhm, why don't you just move back to the Tower and leave me here?"

"No," he whispered and then looked down at the floor. "I'm not leaving you alone."

"You wouldn't," she said. "Jarvis is here. Besides, I'm only trapped here for two weeks. As soon as this cast is gone, I'm going to look for a job, save up, and move out. There's no need for you to alter your routine for me. I won't be here long."

Tony narrowed his eyes at her words. She had only been here for a day and she had already decided this was not going to be a permanent arrangement for her. She wanted out. She wanted to leave. She wanted to be away from him. "Well," he began through clenched teeth. "It's pretty obvious you've already made a decision so, well, that's that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She stared at him as he opened the door and stepped out into the hall. "Tony, stop. What was that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Pepper," he spat and put his backpack on. "Clearly, my accommodations and efforts to make you comfortable are not enough for you."  
"What?" She could not believe her ears. Was she speaking another language to him? How had her message that she did not want to be a bother to him gotten lost in translation? "Tony, that's not at all what I said. This…all of it…it's more than I could've asked for from anyone. But clearly you already have an established schedule I've been screwing up for you ever since I woke up from my coma."

"You don't have to sugarcoat it for me, Pepper. I get it. You want to be on your own."

"No, I don't want to be on my own. I just don't want my problems to affect anyone but myself. My memory loss is my issue and mine alone."

Tony pursed his lips. She had just unknowingly slapped his face with his own argument. The decision not to make her aware of their romantic past was his decision and his alone to make. The decision to take on the consequences of her memory loss was hers and hers alone to make.

"It's late. I'm tired. See you in the morning, Pepper." He finally said after a long silence between them. Pepper opened her mouth to ask him not to leave until this senseless argument was cleared up, but she instead nodded to him once before she laid down on the bed again. Tony stared at her for two more seconds before he finally closed the door and made his way back to his room.

xxxXXXxxx

The moment Tony left home for the inauguration event on Sunday, Pepper left her room and ventured into his lab on the third floor of the mansion. She had no idea what she would find there but she was tired of the looks he was giving her since their fight two nights ago. He had been avoiding her for the most part, claiming he was busy with the preparation for the children's hospital ceremony but she knew it was much more than that. He had not even gone shopping with her on Saturday and had sent Jarvis in his stead. But he had at least had added her print to the security system, allowing her to now unlock to the door to his lab.

She wheeled herself inside the large room and stared at it in awe. She did not have to be a scientist to recognize that the "small lab," as Tony had called it, was nothing but state-of-the-art. The computer screens were actually projections that appeared to levitate in the middle of the room, visible from both sides. Many complex-looking tools and machines lay around the floor and tables of the premises, and schematics adorned every inch of the walls.

She smiled when she saw the picture on a schematic of something she recognized: the _Pep Ride_. She got closer to it and traced it with her fingertips, trying her best to understand the intricately-designed diagram before her. She then moved her chair to the schematic to the left of the _Pep Ride_ and analyzed that one too; this particular one was labeled _Earth Mover_. Her eyes landed on a particular set of words that caught her attention and she furrowed her brows as she tried to remember where she had heard of the concepts before.

_"OK," she said and with hesitation pressed the red button. She immediately felt the wheelchair begin to shake but not violently and before she knew what was happening, her feet were off the ground by a foot. She stared down all around the chair and then at Tony with wide eyes. "Am I flying?"_

_ "Levitating, would describe it best. I used the same repulsor and anti-gravity technologies I used in some my other inventions and created a propulsion system that allows the chair to move freely in any direction you may want."_

"Repulsor and anti-gravity technologies," she read aloud from the diagram. "So, this is what he meant."

She continued moving from one diagram to the next, taking in as much information as she could from them. She must have read at least thirty different inventions, each one more complex than the next: the Flight Stabilizer, the Stark Pod, the Miniaturized Particle Accelerator, the ARC Reactor…all inventions product of his ingenious mind. She knew he had to be somewhat smart to be an inventor and had gotten an idea of how intelligent he had to be to make the advanced wheelchair for her, but it was not until now that she truly realized the extent of his giftedness. He was not just smart or very smart; he was a prodigy.

She was marveled by the beauty of the designs even if she did not understand half of them and she had to wonder how the fuck had she ever fit in his life at all. All of these ideas were beyond her current level of understanding, and even if she had once been interested in software development like he had told her, she doubted she would ever be on par with him.

How had they made their friendship work? How was it possible that someone as bright as he even considered wasting time hanging around someone like her? Gene, she could understand; he was also rich. Rhodey was a guy, so she figured he liked and maybe even understood some of the toys Tony made. But her? She had nothing to offer; nothing to reciprocate in this friendship of theirs. What was she doing here? Why was she wasting his time? Why was _he_ wasting time with _her_?

_Guilt_, she thought bitterly and closed her eyes. _It's his guilt._

Suddenly, she felt more out of place than she had ever felt since she had woken up. She was not currently aware that in the years of knowing him she had actually picked up a thing or two from him, or at least enough for her to have attempted to recreate his communication devices while trapped in the submarine. Her subconscious mind knew this very fact to be true but it refused to make her privy of this information; it was not the time or the place to remember that. That information was attached to moments she had wanted to forget about.

Even if her mnemonic phrase for him had a changed from _Tony: Nothing but a phony, _to _Tony: got a lotta mo-NEY_, she could already tell his fortune was just a means to an end; a way for him to be able to make his inventions a reality. He did not create all of these inventions to make money; he made money so that he could materialize his mental creations. He was beyond the grasp and mental capabilities of 99% of the population; he was truly part of the gifted 1% of the world. He was at a different level than her in so many ways; intelligence, looks and wealth. But above all and what struck her the most, was that he was – in any capacity - undeniably beyond her reach.

_I'm so stupid_, she berated herself and turned her wheelchair in place to begin her trek back to the door. She could not stand the IQ levels mocking her in this room; she felt as if the diagrams themselves displayed more intelligence than she did. She needed to get out now. _Why would I even think he liked me like that? _She scoffed and shook her head._ I bet this Maya Hansen person is at his level and I'm not. I'm at the bottom of the food chain._

The last phrase made her stop in her tracks and she narrowed her eyes.

"Food chain," she whispered and the phrase made her chest hurt. "Bottom of the…food chain…" she repeated aloud and it was then she felt a spike of pain hit her forehead. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth as her mind showed her another blurry image she did not recall. It was of Tony and her again, and she was surrounding his left arm with hers. The sounds around them were somewhat distorted, but their voices were as clear as day to her.

"_I don't mean perfect as if she was flawless, but she was on a different level than everyone else there. She's pretty, sophisticated and rich, and she knew you since you were kids. It was like an unwritten rule that she had dibs on you. How many other girls matched her qualifications?" Pepper asked as she single-handed air-quoted the last word._

_ "Well, I guess if you put it that way."_

"_And then there's me. Not as pretty, definitely not sophisticated, and rich? Yeah, right! I'm, like, at the bottom 25% of the food chain. You're way out of my league."_

As quick as the image appeared it disappeared, just as it had done so before at the hospital when she and Tony had touched hands, but this time the lingering effects were greater than before. She could have overlooked the kiss he had planted on her hand as a sign of friendship. Rhodey or even Gene could have done the same to her and the meaning would have not changed. Her words just now, however, the words she had heard herself say to him; those were not as easily ignored or misinterpreted.

"Way out of my league," she exhaled loudly. "He's way out of my league."

She shook her head to clear her mind and made her way out of the lab. Tony would not be back for hours, perhaps not even at all, and this was perfect for her right now. She needed time to think, time to break down and dissect her latest flashback. She needed time to make sense of what she had just seen and heard. She needed time alone, away from people who gave her half-assed answers to her pressing inquiries. She needed to piece together what her slowly recovering memories meant. But, most of all, she needed to find out why Tony had lied to her.

xxxXXXxxx

Maya Hansen had not wasted the chance to attend the ceremony, and she had also not spared the opportunity to look her best for the young inventor. Her long, curly dark brown hair was up in a messy bun, and her slim figure was accentuated by a red, sleeveless dress that stopped above her knees. She was wearing gold high heels and a gold purse, which she chose to use so that she could match with Iron Man.

Or so she had bluntly told him behind the podium before she had kissed the facial slit of the faceplate, shocking the inventor right before he was supposed to be on stage. Good thing War Machine was around to do most of the talking for them.

The event dragged on forever for the inventor, mostly because he could not rid his mind of Pepper. He was still rubbing the soft spot on his chest that had gotten pierced by her words two days ago despite his brain telling him this is what he had wanted in the first place. His heart mocked him for being upset at the fact that Pepper had no intention of staying with him, and it told him that he had to get used to the feeling of anger he currently felt. He had already decided to move on without her, right? He did not have the right to be this upset.

_But I am_, he thought in disdain as another group of kids joined him for a picture. He had never before been so grateful for the helmet or the suit of the armor as he currently was; it was the only defense he had from the world. Inside it he could scream, weep and curse everyone around him, and they would never notice the anger seeping out of his pores. All they saw was the mask, the armored vigilante and not Tony Stark.

When the event finally ended, Tony did not return to the mansion and instead made his way to the Temple where he spent the night. He had a lot of things to ponder about and being around Pepper distracted him greatly. He knew the next two weeks would be long and painful for him but not because he was mad at the situation, but because he knew the moment Pepper's leg was usable again, he would have to watch her leave and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Or maybe," he told himself in the loneliness of his lab. "Maybe there is something I can do."

Heart: 1; brain: 0.

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**A/N:** Want a sneak peek for the next chapter? Ask for it in your review!


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: **More shout outs to more Faithful Readers for this story: Argentina, Denmark, France, Paraguay, China, Malaysia, Mauritius, Russian Federation, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Iran, Venezuela, Austria, Germany, Philippines, Colombia, Indonesia, Algeria, Canada, Finland, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Czech Revar, Egypt, South Africa, Iceland and Dominican Revar.

**You ALL TOTALLY ROCK! **So, because you do, here is another chapter. Yes, ANOTHER chapter! And preview if you ask for it in your review. AND after this I will return to the regular once-a-week schedule ^_^

Stay tuned. The drama is just getting started!

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Pepper woke up with a start and sat on her bed. Her heart was beating fast and her hands were shaking but it was not because she had been having a nightmare. In fact, the dream she had just woken up from was the furthest from a nightmare there was.

"Was that real?" she whispered in the darkness of her room as she brushed her fingertips of her right hand over her lips and her face flushed. Even though it had only been a dream, she was still experiencing a light tingle on her mouth and skin, and she could almost feel his warm lips still on hers; Tony's lips.

The details of the situation she had encountered in her dream were fuzzy; just as the other couple of what she assumed were actual flashbacks of memories forgotten, had been. Nevertheless, she remembered the last part of this particular image rather vividly. How could she not? She had been kissing Tony Stark! Or, at least that was what she could assume had happened based on the way his head had leaned down to hers before she had closed her eyes in her dream and her lips had heated up.

She could not recall hearing any sounds around her even though Tony's lips had been moving when he had held her face in his hands but she doubted whatever he was saying made any difference with what he had done afterwards: the message had been pretty clear. _We went out_, she told herself and covered her face with her hands. _He lied to me; we did use to go out._

Even though it had been just a dream and not a memory that had come to her while awake, the redhead could not ignore the fact that the action seemed very plausible after everything she had experienced around the inventor. Three days ago, when she had visited his lab inside the mansion for the first time, the possibility that she and Tony had been more than good friends had first come to her and this dream sealed the deal. She had to admit the idea of the two of them together was not as farfetched as she had first thought it out to be.

_ It would make sense as to why I was in his life in the first place. We dated. We…_

They, _what_, exactly?

The myriad of possibilities made her head spin.

_There goes my sleep_, she thought to herself before she slid to the side of the bed and pushed herself up. She hopped her way to the wall where her brand new crutches lay and put them under her arms, determined to go down to the kitchen and have a midnight snack while she pondered on the revelation her dreams had pieced together for her regarding Tony _freaking_ Stark.

The last time she had spoken to him had been when she had woken up from a nightmare to his strong arms and calming words, and here she was, four days later, and she had not heard from him. The event on Sunday had apparently gone for a long time and the inventor had not returned home to the mansion that night, or the next night…or the next.

In fact, she had not actually physically seen him since he had clearly misunderstood her words and had walked out of her room. Since then she had ordered a new set of crutches and had returned the _Pep Ride_ to his lab. Jarvis had been kind enough to fetch her new crutches for her when the store had called that they had them ready, and she was now getting used to using the low-tech contraptions rather than Captain Jean-Luc Picard's rejected flying car.

She had been practicing using the crutches since she got them on Monday, so the trek down the stairs and to the kitchen was not as treacherous as it should have been. She did not even have to turn on the lights since she had already memorized the path around the places she frequented, and every meal since Tony's MIA status came to be had been spent in the kitchen with Jarvis.

Even though Maria Stark had been an avid cook – from the stories Jarvis had relayed to her – the kitchen was a place no one was allowed to eat in, especially not by themselves. There was, however, a small, two-person, pull-out table attached to the back wall of the room. Pepper and Jarvis had been sharing eating times there and this had been the only reason she had not run away from the mansion days ago.

She had sincerely hoped that leaving her hospital cell was the end of her disconnection from the outside world but she now realized she had simply gone from one prison to another. Even if she and Tony had had a disagreement a few days ago, she was yet to use one of the many computers in the house to access the internet and get it over with. She had tried to do so at different times but the guilt that pressed down on her chest prevented her from even typing anything on the damned keyboard.

She arrived at the kitchen with no mishap and expertly hobbled her way to the small table in the back. She unfolded it as quietly as possible and then sat in one of the chairs. She perched the crutches against the wall and took a moment to rest her arms and legs.

As she recovered from her stealth kitchen-raiding mission, her mind brought to the forefront the images and sensations of her latest dream. No matter how hard she tried, she could not make herself see where she and Tony had been or who else was around them. All she could see were his piercing, blue eyes and his concern-ridden face staring down at her, and all she could feel were his hands on her cheeks and his lips on hers. The last sensation made her blush again.

His actions and words now made that much more sense. The hesitation with which he had always approached her, as if keeping his distance from her had been for her benefit and his, lest he did not trust himself to give away what he truly thought or felt, was the one trait that she now understood one-hundred percent. From day one he had measured his words and behavior, all possibly in an effort to not overwhelm her with the news that the two of them had been an item of some sort at some point in the past.

_"Can I get closer?" he asked and pointed to the general area of her bed._

_ "Sure," she said. "You're the first one to be concerned about my personal bubble," she added with a smile._

_ He shortened the distance between them and stared at her up and down. She felt her heart skip a beat at the way he was staring at her, as if she was a porcelain doll that had recently fallen to the floor and he was looking for chips or marks. When he finished his examination he gazed at her again. "I heard you're going to be out of here pretty soon. You, uhm, you gave us quite the scare, Pepper."_

She sighed and rested her chin on her folded arms on the table. She wondered how many of his phrases or questions have had unintentional double-meanings she was just now becoming aware of. _Can I get closer?_ She repeated to herself before sighing again and whispering to the solitude around her. "How close do you want to be?"

_"It's alright," he said and hesitated for a moment before extending his right hand to her. "I'm Tony Stark, and we used to be…best friends."_

_ The ginger smiled and accepted the handshake, responding to him while her hand was still in his. "And I'm Patricia Potts. I hope we can be best friends again."_

"Best friends," she whispered. _Is that all he wants?_

_I'm a lost cause, she mused to herself. "Maybe I should just run away. No one would miss me, anyway."_

"_I would miss you."_

_Her eyes snapped open to darkness, and it took her a second to remember she was covering her eyelids with her hand. She then lifted her arm from her face and pushed up the upper half of her body by resting her weight on her elbows and looked left and right for the owner of the voice._

"_Behind you," she heard him say before he walked around to stand by the front of the bench and stared down at her. "Although," he continued, "I don't think I have to worry about you trying to run away. You wouldn't get that far," he pointed to her injured leg._

_Pepper narrowed her eyes at him, feeling slightly annoyed with his arrogant-looking face. Who did this guy think he was, making fun of her like that? She did not even remember him and he knew it. Why did he think he could just talk to her like that? "I got all the way over here, didn't I? And no one has come looking for me yet."_

"_I did," he gave her a one-sided shrug. "And I'm here to foil any plans of yours to run away."_

_The small irritation she had felt before only increased with his cocky-grin. "How did you find me?" She asked and forced herself to sit up sideways on the bench, or as much as she could with her casted leg still extended over the seat._

"_I'm your best friend," he shrugged again and then pulled out something small from his pants pocket. "And, you kinda forgot your sketch for world domination under the pillow," he added with an even larger smile and showed her the small napkin where she had doodled her sketch to leave the hospital unnoticed to find the garden she was currently in._

He wanted to be best friends, and she was sure that if she was not currently questioning everything they would have become just that. The boy was easy to talk to and hang around with, and even with all his money, looks and incredibly smart brain, he was still a normal teen just like her.

_"I didn't make many friends at school. Most kids didn't talk to me because of who I was; who I still am. Only you and Rhodey seemed to be the ones to treat me like I was just another normal kid; just like you."_

Up until a few days ago she had believed him to be a normal kid just like her and Rhodey; richer, but still a normal kid, and now she could not help to not be as sure. She knew she would have no problem treating him as any other person her age, but it was obvious that without her past memories she would never be able to recover the relationship – friend or otherwise – she had had with him. It was clear that the way in which they had met and their friendship progressed had been one of the determining factors in how well they interacted with each other; an advantage they currently did not have.

"_I thought I had nothing else left, but then you and Rhodey kept telling me it was not the end of the world, and it wasn't. I still had my brains and you two, so we all started our own company."_

"_Stark Solutions," Pepper said, thinking about her phone._

"_Yes. I started getting back on track, inventing lots of stuff and selling them like hot bread, and then my dad appeared and got the company back. It seemed as if everything was getting better and…" he exhaled and stopped pacing. "…and I slipped. I got too comfortable, too content, and I forgot there were still people out there wanting to hurt me. One of them poisoned my dad – almost killed him for real this time – but I was able to save him."_

_Pepper stared up to look at him and he was staring back at her with that same look she had seen on him whenever they spoke about what had occurred to her. She now understood what that look meant and she felt disgusted with herself for ever doubting Tony's intentions. She now understood why he had scrutinized her body when he had first seen her awake that day she had again opened her eyes._

"_This person," he continued, eyes glued to hers. "This enemy of mine…" he swallowed hard, "is the same one who targeted you."_

_ Pepper looked down at her lap, taking in his words as he continued. "Instead of taking vengeance directly onto me, they went after the people I care about. First, my dad; and then, you."_

Of course she had been number-two on that hit list! Standard Enemy Revenge steps: 1) Go after the family of the guy you hate; 2) If previous step fails, go after the girl the guy likes!

_"I was attacked?"_

_ "Kidnapped. Taken. Right under my nose and by the time I figured it out it was almost too late for you."_

Pepper lifted her head from the table and rested it on her upturned left hand. She extended her right hand on the table and sighed again. She had come down here to eat and all she could do was think about the clues he had been giving her all of this time.

"_I, well, ahem…" she cleared her throat, not sure how to bring up the conversation now that the moment had been ruined but her curiosity got the best of her. "You said that your enemies came after the people you cared about."_

_ "Right."_

_ "And, they first came after your dad, and then me but…but wouldn't it make more sense if they came after your…girlfriend, first? You know, before your best friend?"_

_ "It would've, if I'd have had a girlfriend at the time."_

This was where she was stuck. Either he had plain lied to her and they had still been dating when she had been taken, or if they had dated they had broken up before she had been kidnapped. It would make sense for their relationship not to last long if her suspicions that she had probably been holding him back were true. She believed that while their friendship seemed to have worked well, a possible relationship would have probably failed miserably. It did sometimes happen to the best of friends: their attempt at moving to the next level only resulted in the downfall of their friendship.

_Maybe that's what happened to us. Maybe we broke up and couldn't recover. Maybe he doesn't want me to know that we went out because he wants us to just be friends; maybe he just misses the good times._

And if the good times resembled any of the ones she had already spent with him – at the hospital, the restaurant and even at home – she could definitely understand why he would hate losing someone who understood him as much as she seemed to do so. It was not as if he was trying to woo her again; he was just trying to keep his friend close to him.

Sadly, that made a whole lot of sense.

_Besides_, Pepper continued her musings, _he did say he likes that girl: Maya-something. He's trying to move on. He's trying to ease out of what we wrecked and trying to save the friendship we had._

That too made a lot of sense.

"_Don't worry about my romantic life, Pepper. I'm a terrible boyfriend. I got dumped, remember?"_

_ "Well, the more reason to help you out. If you suck at relationships, then we have to work on fixing that before you go to college."_

The ginger wondered if she had dumped him, too, and she would have thought more about it had the lights of the kitchen not just suddenly been turned on.

Her head snapped to the entrance to see the inventor standing by the threshold. His hand was still on the light switch and his face showed how shocked he was to find her here. She was not sure when he had finally made it back after so many days of not seeing him but he had been here long enough to be wearing only his pajama pants. His bare feet shifted from side to side as if he was deciding whether to stay or go and self-consciously ran his left hand through his pillow-messed hair.

Pepper stared him up and down for one more moment until her eyes inadvertently landed on his lips. She licked hers at the memory they brought to her before returning her attention to the table in front of her. She sincerely expected him to turn off the light and leave but he surprised her by walking inside and heading to the refrigerator.

"Can't sleep?" he asked as he rummaged inside the fridge. He then closed it and walked away from it, milk jug in hand, and did not stop until he reached the cooktop. "Me neither," he continued when Pepper did not respond.

It was not as if she did not want to talk to him; she was just stunned silent by the realization that this man before her had once been her other half. She considered getting up and leaving but she stopped herself from doing so when she saw him take out a pot and two cups from the cabinets. "My mom always said warm milk helps you sleep. Want to give it a shot?"

She was not certain why, but the way in which he had asked the last question was replied to by her mind by the question: "_Any chance you'd like to give this jerk a shot?" _but she had enough sense not to actually utter the words aloud.

_ Another random flashback, _the redhead thought of the random phrase before nodding to Tony. The genius smirked and quickly got to his task immediately after her approval sign, and she again busied herself by gluing her eyes to her fingernails. It was so difficult, getting a word out; she was afraid she would say the wrong thing. She was now absolutely certain Tony wanted nothing more than her friendship, but she was not sure how she could go about it without wondering what it was like to kiss him and find the perfect spot in his arms.

She was not given a lot of time to ponder about it and before she knew it, the blue-eyed boy was sitting across from her. He placed a crumpled paper towel in the middle of the table and when he unfolded it she saw its contents were none other than cream-filled, chocolate cookies. The smile on her face was enough for him to feel he was taking a step in the correct direction.

"One night, really late at night," he began and grabbed one cookie, "we were stuck studying for a midterm," he twisted the cookie and separated the two halves, leaving an equal amount of cream filling on their insides. "Rhodey had already gone to bed because he's a wuss like that –"

The small giggle that escaped her when he mocked their friend made him smile and the twinkle in her eyes when she accepted the half of the cookie he was offering her made his heart skip a beat. "Our horrible Drama teacher wanted us to read off scenes from Hamlet to the entire school, on stage, at a theater."

He took a bite out of the cookie and she did the same, and for the first time since he had walked in she was able to stare at him directly at his eyes. He swallowed down the bite he had just taken before he stood up from the chair and walked over to the now hot milk, continuing his story as he poured them a cup each. "I was having such a hard time memorizing my lines, and you had the misfortune of being paired up with me. I kept changing the scenes because I just couldn't memorize any of them, and you were patient enough with me to memorize scene after scene after scene."

He finally returned to the table and set a cup in front of her and one in front of himself. He dipped the leftover half of the cookie in his milk and then the sugar-filled snack disappeared inside his mouth. Pepper took this time to eat her half too and then washed it down with the milk.

"I'd never had so much trouble memorizing _anything_ in my life. I didn't understand why it was such a pain in the ass for me then. I thought it was because I was having some personal problems that did not involve you or Rhodey, but I now know the real reason why I couldn't make those damned lines stick."

Pepper's lips left the edge of the cup and while still holding it in her hands she looked up to stare at him. "Why?"

"For the same reason why I'm having a difficult time making your recovery easier for you right now: I'm afraid to let you down."

Her eyes could only hold his guilt-ridden ones for so long until she had to look away. She pretended to cool down her milk by blowing air on it while she gathered her thoughts. She was not sure what the best response to a statement like that was, but she was going to at least try to ease his responsibility.

"Maybe you're trying too hard."

"Or not hard enough," he said with a scoff and she shook her head.

"I know my words last week made it seem as if you're not doing what you should, but I assure you that's not how I really feel. I don't want to be in your debt for the rest of my life, and I don't want you to feel as if you'll never be able to make it up to me for being kidnapped because of you."

"Easier said than done, Pepper."

"Only if you try to do it alone," she replied and set her cup on the table. Her right hand then hesitantly found his and she held them together in what she hoped would seem as a friendly gesture and nothing else. Tony eyed their hands for a second and then stared up at her face with an unreadable mask on his features. "I'm sorry if I insulted your support last time we spoke. It was not my intention to undermine what you've done for me."

Tony gulped to find his voice and sighed. "You didn't insult me, Pep. I-I read more into your words than I should've. It had been a long day for me but I shouldn't have taken my frustrations out on you."

"Forget it if I do?" she tilted her head and smiled.

"Deal," he agreed with a smile of his own and without realizing it lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Pepper eyes widened for an instant but she quickly brushed aside the emotions the simple gesture stirred within her.

"Is that our version of a pinky-promise?"

"Uhm, what?" the inventor asked, trying his best not to slap himself silly for dropping the ball with his actions again but he did not let go of her hand.

"Back at the hospital," she found herself saying despite the implications that would arise from her next words, "At some point, I had a flashback, I guess. I saw us sitting somewhere and you were holding my hand. The memory wasn't long but it was long enough for me to see you do the same thing you did just now. I take it that was common between us?"

Tony again stared down at their hands, a small tint of hope beating inside his chest. "Yes. Yes, it was."

"Then I don't see any reason why it can't be again," she said and then covered their interwoven hands with her free one. "I haven't been the best of friends as of late but I want to be. I…I've missed you around here."

He covered her hand on top of his with his own. "I've missed you, too."

"How," she swallowed hard, trying to keep the conflicting emotions inside of her at bay. "How can I make it better?"

"A lot of ways," he answered and then rearranged their hands so that he held both of hers in both of his, arms bent, fingers laced, and elbows resting on the table and carefully avoiding the forgotten cookies and cups of milk. "But you can start by telling me why you left the chair in the lab."

Pepper bit her lip and Tony smiled, already having an idea of what she was about to say. "I was mad at you. I wanted to make you feel bad."

"It worked," he responded and she hung her head in shame. "But I had it coming."

"No," she said in a soft tone. "You…you…"

"Hey," he whispered to her and held tightly onto her fingers when she tried to pull them away from his. "It's alright. We already forgot it, right?"

She looked up from the table and realized that at some point he had leaned over closer to her. She could not help but to mimic his actions and their faces ended up inches away from each other. "Yeah, I guess so."

"I expect a report on its usability, though. You said you would test it for me, right?" he continued in a soft voice as if trying to narrow down their world to just the two of them.

"Right," she said in the same low voice and nodded. "I can do that."

"You can also help me test the others, too. You always gave me your input before and I'd really appreciate it if you did so again."

Her once happy face became saddened again. "Tony, you don't have to say that. I know the truth."

"What truth?"

"I've been to your lab a few times. I saw your diagrams. There's no way I would have ever been able to give you any advice that would be of use for you and your inventions. I think I lost twenty IQ points just staring at the schematics."

"As if, Pep," he said, confidently. "You may not remember much of it now, but you were always of great help to me. Rhodey was there, too, but it was you that scrutinized my designs and found flaws in them I hadn't even thought about. You were the one who helped me test my software and did a lot of my research for me. You were the one who kept my feet firmly planted on the ground when my big head got even bigger. You were the one that spent most nights up with me while I worked on a new invention, time and time again."

Pepper eyed him with uncertainty, reading his face for any traces of dishonesty but she found none. She had no idea how strong their bond had been and she was now seeing why the inventor was practically desperate to keep their friendship intact at all costs. "Because Rhodey's a wuss like that," she jested and he chuckled.

"Yes, he is, and you're not. You're my own personal Private Eye. I need you."

She looked down. "I'd like to be all those things again for you, Tony, but there is only so much I can do now until I re-learn all I forgot. Besides, my only job was school back then. I can't overlook the fact that it's not as easy as before. I'm on my own now. I can't dedicate my life to just hanging out with you. It's going to be hard."

"Only if you try to do it alone," he said and her face snapped up to stare at him when she recognized her own phrase being said right back at her. "Stay, Pepper; come work for me. I told you you'd always have a job at Stark Solutions if you wanted it. You already kinda did help me with it before; we just need to ease you back into the rhythm again."

"But, Tony, you…I couldn't possibly owe you more…"

"You wouldn't owe me; I'd paid you," he winked at her and her heart nearly stopped. How could she hope to work with him every day if one brush of his hand or a smile of his now made her weak in the knees? She was not in love with him or anything, but now that she knew what they had had in the past she could not help but feeling somewhat vulnerable to his charm.

"But, what about college?"

"You can still go. Stark Solutions offers a very flexible work schedule," he pointed out. "You aren't going to find another employer that lets you do homework on the job or leave in the middle of the day for class. Plus, we have awesome benefits, company stock buying options and other great perks."

Pepper laughed and stared down at their hands; she was surprised to find they were still to let go of each other. "You make it sound so tempting, Mr. Stark. What's the application process?"

"Oh, it's nothing too long or complicated," he responded with a wide smile, willing to play the game with her. "I currently have an opening for a personal assistant and research partner."

"You don't say," she smirked. "What are the qualifications for the position?"

"Very specific ones: honest, reliable, a fast learner, and able to handle the pressure of working with one of the brightest minds on the planet."

"That sounds reasonable enough. Anything else?"

"Yes. Around 5'5", 17 years of age, female with hazel eyes and red hair, and looks good in a leg cast."

Pepper could not help the loud laugh that invaded her at his last qualification and she leaned her head forward and to her right side, completely overlooking the fact that they were already very close to each other. The movement caused the side of her face to lightly brush against his cheek and the slight touch made him lose his mind. He immediately closed his eyes and leaned his head forward as well. He then rested his forehead on her shoulder and it was that gesture that made the laughter stop.

"Say 'yes,' Pepper," he whispered to her, all hints of lightheartedness stripped from his voice. She could feel his breath on her neck and she hoped he was not close enough for him to feel her heart rate skyrocket. "It'll be like old times, but better."

She opened her eyes she had closed at some point and took in a deep breath she exhaled slowly through her nose. "Wouldn't…" she swallowed hard. "Wouldn't HR complain that your second list of qualifications is in violation of their policies?"

"Fuck HR. I'm _The Man_, remember?"

"Yes," she said and pulled back slightly. He lifted his forehead from her shoulder and pulled back as well; leaving their tilted heads so close to the other she could feel him breathe. "Yes, you are."

Neither of them dared to stare at anything other than down, which eventually led them to close their eyes completely. "Are we going to live at the tower?"

"No," he breathed. "We'll get an apartment."

"We?"

"Yes. We; you and me. We'll move out of here and find our own place. We'll drive to work every day."

"Are you suggesting we live together?"

"Why not? We already kinda do, right?"

"I guess," she said, suddenly sobering up at the seriousness of the conversation. She finally pulled away enough to put some reasonable distance between them but she refused to let go of his hands. "But this is just convenient, Tony. Getting an apartment together; that's a different story."

"It doesn't need to be. We are friends and we can be roommates. Besides, it'll be hard for you to rent an apartment at seventeen. Let's sign a year lease and if you think I'm the worst roommate ever, we can go our separate ways next year."

"That sounds fair," she said before nodding. "OK. Alright. Let's do this."

"Really?"

"Yes," she said, more confidently this time. "But I want my own bathroom."

"Done."

"And a walk-in closet."

"Whatever you want," he assured her.

"And an elevator in the building."

"If they don't have one I'll have one built," he responded, and she smiled and squeezed his hands.

"And I want to pay for half of everything."

"Errrrr….uhm…"

"Tony," she said in a warning tone.

"How about I'll cover us until you start school?"

"No."

"Come on, Pepper. You need some time to save up and you shouldn't be dipping into your college fund."

"But that's what it's for!"

"Yeah, assuming you live in a dorm; not an apartment in Manhattan!"

"I, well," she groaned. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

"Of course I am. I'm Tony Stark," he gave her a smug smile she immediately countered with a single eyebrow lift. "I'm always right."

"Except when you're wrong."

"Misinformed, Private Eye. Misinformed."

"So, blamed it on me?"

"Yup."

"I hate you, Stark," she deadpanned but then a smile crept up to her face. "I hate you so much."

"I hate you, Potts," he replied also with a smile. "I hate you so much, too."

After a final squeeze she finally let go of his hands and then eyed the cookies and milk. "Want to share these?"

"Wouldn't share them with anyone else," he responded and she shook her head before grabbing two cookies and handing one to him.

xxxXXXxxx

Stark Solutions had its own section to do business, practically independent from the rest of Stark Tower. There was a separate entrance and parking lot just for Tony and whatever employees he ever decided to hire, but he hardly ever used the hidden perks of his company. He always preferred to use the main door to Stark International whenever he could, as using his own private entrance always reminded him of the time he was not allowed on the premises of what used to be his home and had resorted to sneaking inside.

Another condition for his company to become an associate of Stark International was to be able to do whatever he wanted with his company and designs as long as it was not deemed illegal. Tony had learned from watching what Obadiah Stane and the board had done to his father's company while he was away that having absolute control over your ideas and their use was crucial for making sure his word was always law and his tech never misused. He swore to himself that he would always do anything in his power to make it so that anything and everything related to Stark Solutions required his seal of approval and that was the only way he would ever do business with anyone else.

The current, rather heated board meeting Tony was in, was further proof of why he had made sure he could bail out of the contract with Stark International whenever he may well please. Furthermore, the topic at hand was another reason why he had programmed his phone to send him a summary of the stock and financial status of the company before these meetings took place. The members of the board all spoke the same language: profits and Tony would milk their insatiable need for money as long as he possibly could.

"Mr. Stark," Mitch Richards, one of the recently added board members, continued his rant. The man was about ten years older than Tony, so the use of the the word _mister _in front of Tony's name was just a forced formality while the man was informally accepted into the group. Tony had not liked the man at all when he had been interviewed for the empty board position but since the inventor was aware that Howard would kick the newbie out the moment he pissed off his father, Tony had not worried much about the fact that Mitch was not a fit for this board. His qualifications and experience on paper showed that he had paid his dues to be here, but Tony knew how his father worked and what he expected from his company and Mitch Richards was not going to be around for long. However, Howard had always been a man who believed in giving everyone a chance to prove themselves, so he had agreed for Richards to join the board on a probationary basis.

"I understand that you may feel responsible for the fate of Miss Patricia Potts," Mitch began. "But your involvement or causation in said matter should not be your sole reasoning for bringing her aboard Stark International. It's just not a sound business decision."

Tony gave Mitch a condescending smile and then rested his hands behind his neck as if he was just enjoying a day at the beach rather than taking on half of the board members of Stark International that were opposed to Pepper becoming Tony's first employee. "First of all, Mitch, if you're going to argue against something you don't agree with, make sure that you have your facts straight. Pepper would not be an employee of SI, but of Stark Solutions, and secondly, I'm just notifying the board of _my_ decision as a common business courtesy. Nobody here has any say on what I do with _my_ company."

"Granted," Mitch responded. "However, I believe as more experienced business professionals, it is our duty to impart wisdom to the young about how a corporation is successfully run."

"True, and in any other situation I would welcome your advice, but all the reasons I've heard today about why bringing in Pepper to work with me is a bad idea have been nothing but whines."

"Should I remind you, Mr. Stark," Robert Hutchinson interjected, "that some of us have been here longer than you've been alive? I think you should show some respect to those who have been down the road and back."

"And should I remind you that half of your expected profits from the next quarter will come from Stark Solutions' inventions?"

The board member visibly flinched at that. "What's your point?"

"My point is that everyone here who's against Pepper joining me has said it's because it's a bad business decision. Do you think that a person who had made his own fortune at seventeen and is now providing you with half of your money every quarter is making bad business decisions?"

"That is true," Mitch then started when Robert had nothing else to say, "But those business decisions were made while Miss Potts was not in the picture."

Tony laughed aloud and pointed an accusing finger toward the man. "Seriously, Mitch, who's your source of information? Maybe I should lend you Pepper for a few days so she can find you reliable sources and factual information."

"Actually, Mitch," Diane Tincher chirped in, "Pepper and Tony went to high school together and she was one of the unofficial founders of Stark Solutions, the other being James Rhodes."

"Thanks, D," Tony said with a smile before putting a frown on his face and returning his attention to Mitch. "Pepper's and Rhodey's input has been present in all of my designs from Stark Solutions. She's been doing recon and research for me forever and not only for my company but for Iron Man business as well. So, the fact that she has no college degree and is only seventeen is irrelevant to the argument. Pepper is starting her position in two weeks when her cast comes off and that's what it is."

"This is outrageous!" Clark Morrison, another elder board member – perhaps too old to still be around – spat. "You expect us to rely on someone who was abducted and has no recollection of who she is to help you achieve the same success you've had in the past? She belongs in a mental hospital and NOT in our source of income!"

Even Howard Stark narrowed his eyes at that comment but he refused to meddle in the argument. The last thing he wanted to do was show that his son could not handle himself and still needed his father to advocate for him and defend him. Howard knew his son was no longer a child and that while there was some truth that his feelings for Pepper were part of the reason why he was bringing her over to work for him, he was also aware that the redhead was smart in her own way and was perfect for keeping the inventor on track and in check.

"What'd you just say?" Tony's tone showed that it was evident he had heard every word Clark had just said but he was simply daring the man to say them again. Tony had to let the board know of Pepper's condition to prevent any of them from hindering her recovery by making inappropriate or untimely comments to the ginger, particularly of memories she was not aware of yet. The unfortunate health situation would not be sent out on a memo to all employees or anything of that sort, but those who would more likely work closely with the redhead had already been notified of the situation.

"She's unstable! She doesn't know what happened to her and she's a seventeen year-old emancipated brat looking to milk your feelings for her to survive. She belongs in a mental hospital, strapped onto a table, high on sedatives and being fed intravenously."

"And you belong in a nursing home, being wiped after every time you soil your pants, and strapped to a coffin you can drop dead in anytime now, but you don't hear me complaining, do you?" Tony spat and stood up from the chair. "Pepper Potts will be coming in with me tomorrow to give her a tour of the facilities and get her acquainted with her new duties. If I hear from anyone that she was mistreated in any way, you can kiss your profits goodbye. I didn't need Stark International before and I certainly do not need it now. I expect everyone to treat her with the same respect I'm treated here – if not more. If you're OK with this, thank you for your support and understanding; if you're not: you can kiss my iron butt."

Devoid of giving time to anyone to respond, Tony turned around in place and left the room without so much as giving anyone a second glance. The slam of the door as he exited was the only sound in the room for a few seconds until Howard Stark motioned for calling the meeting adjourned.

No one complained about that.

xxxXXXxxx

"Did you already have dinner?" Tony asked in a low voice, only audible to the person on the line with him. His Stark Pod was a few inches away from his laptop and the wireless earpiece was firmly planted in his left ear. He was reviewing a few documents he had to send to Human Resources to make Pepper's position and hiring official and he did not want to leave the office until everything was in place.

_"Of course not. I'm waiting for you,"_ the ginger responded and Tony smirked.

"It's almost nine, Pep," he responded and continued typing his final e-mail to the hiring manager of HR. "I still have a few things to do here and then a two-hour drive home. Just eat, alright? I'll be home as soon as I can."

_"I can wait,"_ she argued. _"But, you should really make your bike fly."_

"Hn," Tony said and stopped typing for a moment to consider her suggestion. While he had been out of the mansion after the children's hospital inauguration event, Tony had locked himself up in the Makluan Temple and had designed what he now called the _Stark Bike_. It was merely a prototype as Pepper had just today began researching patent issues for the schematics, but Tony could already see the potential in the vehicle.

From the outside, his black and red bike looked like an ordinary motorcycle, but the workings of the inside made it revolutionary. The two-wheeled means of transportation did not run on gasoline or a battery: it ran on an ARC reactor. The ARC technology used in the design was similar to what Dr. Yinsen had used for Tony's implant with the only difference being that the young billionaire had increased its energy output and longevity.

The basic idea was for the bike's reactor core to power the vehicle for at least two years, at which point the owner would have to bring the bike over to Stark Solutions or an approved facility to exchange the old core for a new one. Tony was aware of the design flaw of having to physically bring the bike for repair, but Pepper had insisted that it was crucial for helping keeping the bike's components from being misused. _"Besides, people take cars to mechanics all the time, don't they? Why not their high-tech bike? Except, we're the mechanics this time around."_

He had not been able to argue with her reasoning and this was why he knew the board members would soon see the good Pepper would do for Stark Solutions and him.

"_Tony? Are you still there?"_

"Yeah, sorry." He pressed the send button of the email and closed his laptop.

"_Getting ideas already?"_ she chuckled.

"Yup." He stood up from the chair, stretched his arms above his head and eyed his establishment. He had a few chairs and desks here and there, but there was no order or reason to any of it. The place looked more like a kid's basement lab than an office, and even though he did have a private office inside the premises, it was currently stocked with boxes of stuff he was yet to unpack. He knew all of that would change once Pepper joined him and started messing around with the office as she did with the Temple, and that was just fine with him. "You know you just gave me another reason to stay here and work on the schematics for making the bike fly, right?"

"_Ugh, Tony!"_ she whined and he chuckled. _"Just come home, alright? It's late and Jarvis is giving me angry looks, wanting me to eat and go to bed already. We're gonna go there tomorrow anyway, right? You can work on your genius ideas tomorrow while I get settled. I promise I won't bother you much."_

"I guess I could install a quick prototype of the flight stabilizer and be home in half an hour instead of two."

"_What? No! Are you crazy?"_

"What?"

"_You can't just strap on an XS-117 in the RT-149 and hope it brings you home safely!"_

"Someone's been studying my designs," Tony said with a prideful smile. "Soon you're gonna know my tech better than I do."

xxxXXXxxx

"Oh, shush," she scoffed but smiled widely at his compliment. She was not going to tell him, however, that she had written the names of the designs on a piece of paper she would carry with her until she memorized them. She had been thinking about the implications of her working with him all day today, and she had come to the realization that she had a lot of work to do if she was going to deliver the support Tony needed from her.

"_Really, Pep. You did so before, you'll do it again. In fact – ugh!"_

"Tony? Tony, are you alright?" The ginger asked when she heard his loud yelp on the other end of the line followed by the signs that he had dropped his earpiece. The sounds should have been faint but with the silence in the mansion and the loud voices she was hearing, the conversation taking place in the office was as clear as day to her.

"_Whoa, Maya, you scared me!"_

"_Aw, come on, Tony! How could __**I**__ scare __**you**__?"_

Pepper narrowed her eyes. She had never heard the voice of the girl before but the name was enough to make her feel slightly _uncomfortable_. _Not jealous_, she told herself. _Just uncomfortable._

"_How did you get in here?"_

"_Door was unlocked."_

"_Oh. Security flaw, I guess."_

"_Yup. Security flaw that worked in my favor, though."_

_A security flaw we will fix immediately, tomorrow_, Pepper thought.

"_Uhm, yeah, I guess,"_ Pepper heard Tony say and then heard the scuffling of feet on the floor as if he was pacing back and forth. The ginger could not blame him for being nervous; he had told her he liked the girl before him.

"_It's so hard to find you here these days. What's keeping you so busy?"_

"_Just stuff," _his voice was getting closer._ "Hey, I'm on my way out. How about we talk later?"_

The last question he had asked was now extremely clear to Pepper, letting her know that Tony had finally picked up the earpiece from the floor and had placed it back in his ear.

"_I'll hold you to it. You can't just kiss me and then not call me, Tony Stark. I'm not that type of girl."_

xxxXXXxxx

Tony's eyed widened at the girl's comment. "I didn't kiss you, Maya. You kissed me."

"Potayto potahtoe," she rolled her eyes. "Point is that you know I like you, a lot. And I know you have to like me, too. Why else would you act all goofy around me? So, why don't we just cut the crap and you ask me to go out?"

"I…I don't like you that way."

Maya scoffed. "Really?"

"Really."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, I am. Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression." Tony shrugged.

Maya stared at him up and down and crossed her arms over her chest. "I find that hard to believe."

"Why?" the inventor asked and the only response he got was of Maya pressing her lips against his which he did not stop. When the girl pulled back she gave him a satisfied smile, turned on her heel and walked away, leaving Tony to ponder when Pepper had ended the phone call.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: *camel walks into the room* GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS? GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS! Hey, Mike! Mike-Mike-Mike-Mike-Mike-Mike! GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS?**

**IT'S CHAPTER DAY! IT'S CHAPTER DAY! HA-HA!**

A chapter? Early? Again? YESH! Why, because, well…I'm awesome like that ;).

Reviewers with FFNET accounts get a PM with the preview for the next chapter. Anyone without a FFNET account who still wants a preview can get one next Wednesday when I post it on my FIC UPDATES page on my tumblr. Find my tumblr account link on my profile :D

BTW, this story has ten chapters and then the epilogue…we're almost done!

* * *

**Chapter 6**

"Tony! Tony, wake up! WAKE UP!" The ginger yelled and hit the door with one of her crutches. "Guess what day it is? _Guess _what day it _is_?"

A few seconds later, a half-asleep inventor opened the door to his room to find a wide-eyed and wide-smiled, bubbly redhead practically bouncing off the walls. He narrowed his eyes at her before he invited her inside to wait while he got ready to go to the hospital with her. "Maybe we should get sound-proof walls, windows AND doors in our apartment," he mumbled and she rolled her eyes.

"Why aren't you ready yet?" Pepper whined and threw herself onto his bed. He walked over to the bathroom and left the door opened while he brushed his teeth. "You know we have an appointment today, right? Did you forget about our appointment? You forgot, didn't you? Oh, my God! I told you we had an appointment! We're going to be late now! What if they cancel on us? What if they push it back another week?"

"Pepper, it's 5:30 in the morning and your appointment is at eleven; that's plenty of time for us to get there on time. And no, I didn't forget the appointment. How could I? You only said it about a million times yesterday and you texted me about it all last night AND left post-it notes all over the office!"

"And yet here I am, having to wake you up for it."

Tony groaned and closed the bathroom door to use the facilities and take a quick shower. Pepper giggled, knowing that they did have plenty of time to make it to the hospital on time but loved annoying the inventor and relished in the fact that her cast was coming off today.

She lay down on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a moment. She then closed her eyes and waited patiently as Tony walked in and out of the bathroom and around the room to gather his clothes and got ready for breakfast. As she heard him up and about, the redhead's mind wandered to the conversation she had overheard last week between him and Maya.

Neither of them had said anything about it yet, and she doubted the conversation would ever come up. Pepper had no right to demand an explanation from him and he did not owe her any. Besides, the fact that the last thing she had heard had been that Maya and Tony had kissed was enough information to infer his progress with the gorgeous brunette. If he ever wanted to let Pepper know anything else about them, he would tell her when he was ready to do so and the redhead would just have to wait.

To be honest with herself, Maya Hansen was not the stuck-up girl she had expected her to be. The girl was very down-to-Earth and had been really sweet to Pepper but had not bordered on falsehood or fawning. Almost everyone had been nice to her whenever she had visited the Stark Solutions section of the SI tower last week and this current week, but the one that had always helped her with anything she could had been Maya Hansen. She could not even say she disliked the girl and based on the actions of the tall beauty, she figured the brunette did not dislike Pepper either.

_Well, at least he likes a decent girl_, she told herself in an attempt to comfort herself. _Someone who doesn't hate my best friend status at all and someone who won't take advantage of him if I'm not around._

The girl's thoughts were interrupted when Tony jumped onto the bed and laid next to her to also stare up at the ceiling. His hand then slid over the space between them and grabbed her right hand in his left. They remained still, fingers laced, surrounded by a comfortable silence until Tony finally spoke up.

"I found us an apartment. Want to go check it out today after your appointment?"

"Yes," she said, eyes still closed. "Where is it?"

"It's a surprise."

"A surprise?" She opened her eyes and looked to her right to stare at him. "It's not at Stark International, right?"

"Nope, but it's close enough for us to go to work without much traffic."

"Elevator?"

"Yup. Walk-in closets, full bathroom in each room, top floor with balcony; washer and dryer in the unit, major kitchen appliances included and reserved parking."

"Sound-proofed walls, too?" She smiled and he moved his head to his left to stare back at her.

"No, but they do have a fitness center and a pool."

"A pool? Sweet!"

"Which you can't use until the doctor clears you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"And you can't go back to doing everything right away; you'll probably need physical therapy."

"Yes, _Mom_," she rolled her eyes.

"And you can't shave your leg for about a week."

"TONY! Ugh! Shut up!"

"What?" he chuckled. "Didn't you read the info I got you for what to expect after your cast is removed?"

"Of course I did, so you don't have to remind me of the gross details. It sucks that I'm going to waste away the rest of the summer and you're going to make sure I do just so that I don't hurt myself again."

"The apartment has a tub," he continued as if she had not just scolded him. "So you can probably take those daily 20-minute soaks with no problem. Maybe we should pick up some shower grab bars so that you don't put a lot of weight on your leg right away."

"Oohh! Make it a bungee rope!"

"Pepper?"

"Yeah?"

"No."

"Boo."

Tony laughed aloud, turned to his side and slid over closer to her. She could not turn to her side due to the cast so she just settled for resting their intertwined hands on her stomach. He eyed her face with a one-sided smile and then leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Thank you for staying. This would've been so boring without you."

"What? Growing up?"

"Everything: Going to work, growing the company, getting my own place, going to school."

"You're just happy you don't have to do it alone." She winked at him.

"No," he swallowed hard and brushed from her face some strands of her longer hair with the back of his left hand. "I'm just happy I get to do this with you."

Pepper resorted to just smiling since her throat had just suddenly closed. She knew her readjustment was not going to be easy but she did wonder how much more difficult it would have been if she had done it in Pittsburgh with her mom or all by herself. Maybe her parents and Tony's dad had allowed for them to stay together not only because she needed it but because the inventor needed it as well. Howard had asked her to watch over his son and now more than ever was she proud to have been the person Stark Senior trusted with his only son's wellbeing. She was not going to let him down, even if it meant walking Tony down the aisle to Maya Hansen.

The last thought made her heart hurt more than she cared to admit.

"Do you think it's too early to ask Jarvis to make breakfast?" The redhead asked when she recovered her senses enough to speak again.

"Probably, since I gave him the weekend off."

"You did? I didn't get the memo, Mr. Stark."

"Memo?" He snickered.

"Yup," she lightly patted his chest with their locked hands. "I need to be informed of events like this. Great communication is key if we're going to work and live together. What if one day I have a guy over and I'm about to get lucky and you walk in?"

Tony pursed his lips and did not respond, so the redhead continued. "It goes both ways, you know? What if you and Maya are having a romantic date or something of the sort and I then barge in with a crisis because I didn't know you were busy? Not good! If you're going to make your relationship with her work, you're going to need to make sure you're there for her, and messing up and ditching dates because you're too into a new invention of yours is not the way to go."

"If she can't understand how my life works, then maybe she's not right for me."

"Or maybe you can realize that 100% divided by 2 is 50%, so you have to put half of the effort to make it work with her."

"So, are you saying that if I wanted to put forth only about 12% of the effort, I'd have to date 7 girls at the same time?" He gave her a smug smile.

"Oh sure, you can do that," she returned the smug look, refusing to fall into his trap. "But as with everything, the indirect proportion of effort comes with the direct proportion of likelihood of getting someone pregnant. One girl equals a chance of getting her pregnant; dating seven girls…well…you can do the math."

Tony narrowed his eyes at her. "You suck."

"That's why you hired me," she said before they both burst out laughing when they realized how wrong her response had sounded. When they finally stopped laughing, the two of them got up from the bed and left the mansion to head to a familiar place close to the hospital to have a nice, long breakfast.

xxxXXXxxx

"Seriously, where are we going?" The girl asked for the tenth time. After breakfast, the hospital and then lunch, Tony had been driving them for about an hour to the destination of the apartment he wanted to show her. They had already driven by SI and had been driving for ten additional minutes from there until she finally had lost all patience with him. "I thought you said this place was close to SI."

"It is. We're almost there."

"Fine," she said, crossed her arms over her chest and continued staring out her window at the neighborhood they were entering now. She had seen a park, a bike and running trail and even a small strip of stores but for the life of her she could not place their current location. Tired of waiting for answers and knowing they were almost there anyway, she took out her pod and ran the map application to find apartments near the area; the results surprised her to no end. "We're near the Hudson?"

"Dammit, Pepper!" He groaned and hit the steering wheel but not in angry manner, just a disappointed one. "You weren't supposed to look it up!"

"Sue me," she said with a satisfied smile and continued browsing the information of the area. "Oh, my God! They have a Farmer's Market!"

"Yeah," he snickered. "And the LEGOLAND Discovery Center is also around here."

"No. Freaking. Way."

"Way." He said, imitating her tone.

"Do we have any other apartments to choose from?"

"I'm hoping this will be the only one."

"Alright," she said and put away her pod. The car finally came to a stop near a building in front of the Hudson River and her jaw fell to the floor. The images she had seen on the pod about the area did not do it justice. The scenery was beautiful, complete with a nice view of the George Washington Bridge. The edge of the land before the river had large rocks and boulders on which people currently sat on to fish. She could see people walking their dogs and kids and an older crowd sitting on benches by the dock, admiring the view as much as she was right now. It was the complete opposite of what she had seen from other parts of New York. "Holy crap, Tony! This place is beautiful."

"I thought you might like it," he said before he turned off the car and got out of it. He walked around the front of the vehicle and to the passenger's seat, opened Pepper's door and helped her out. He then surrounded her waist with his left arm and she surrounded his with her right arm so that she could use him as support while her leg recovered its strength. They slowly walked over to the entrance of one of the similar-looking apartment buildings and made their way to the reception.

"Wait here, Pep," he told her as he helped her sit down on one of the couches in the lobby. "I'll let them know we're here."

"OK," the ginger said with a slight grimace of pain and began staring at her fingernails to pass the time. She was thrilled that her nails had finally grown back to their normal size and she was itching to get a proper manicure. She had been missing some fingernails and toenails when she had first woken up in the hospital, and later on Tony had reluctantly confessed to her that the person who had taken her had pulled them off her. This simple piece of information had made her shiver in dread and she wondered what else this person, this maniac, had done to her. It almost made her feel glad that she could not remember any of it.

_Yet._

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry you?" She heard Tony ask her from his standing position as he stared down at her with a smile and a card key in his hands.

"No, Tony. I'm fine."

"I also have the spare wheelchair in the trunk. We're on the fifteenth floor. We have the penthouse, so to speak."

The ginger shook her head again and pushed herself up from the couch to prove her point. "There's an elevator, right? Let's use it. Besides, I need to move this leg as much as possible so that it starts getting strong again."

Tony gave her a disapproving look but agreed. His upset status did not last long, however, when she snaked her arms around his waist for support and he returned the side embrace. They slowly walked down the hall and to the elevator. Once inside, Tony used the card key to activate the small room and pressed the appropriate floor's button, setting the cart in motion almost instantly.

"The manager said that the card key works for only the floor you live on, especially the top floor. Even if someone finds a way to get into our floor, they would need the card key to get inside the halls from the stairs, too. The only other non-guests that can access the top floor are the Manager and a handful of employees who go up there to get supplies out of the storage room located up there."

"So, the apartment we're about to see is the only one on that floor?"

"Yes. I figured we'd both appreciate the peace and quiet after a long day at work."

"Already liking this place even more," she said with a smile and realized either of them was yet to let go of each other.

The ding of the elevator announced their arrival, and just as before the two teens slowly walked out to the hall and made a right turn. To the left side of the hall was only one door and it belonged to the storage room, but the Manager had assured Tony that most supplies were only taken out on a weekly basis and during the morning only. To the right side of the hall was another single door, which belonged to the entrance of the apartment Tony was hoping to get.

The inventor used the card key again to unlock the door and held it open for Pepper to walk inside. The redhead took small steps inside, trying her best to avoid cringing every time her right leg had to do its job if only to avoid hearing a long speech from Tony about how she should have let him bring over the wheelchair. Pushing the thought aside, Pepper decided to distract herself by doing what she was supposed to be doing in the first place and began eyeing the large dwelling.

The entrance door immediately gave way to a large common area. The right side of the room held what could be a living room and a breakfast nook/dining area, and further to the right of the living area was a small den – room for a possible office, perhaps, and a wood-burning fireplace by the corner of it. To the left of the common room was a kitchen with dark brown cabinets, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. The kitchen had a bar she could already see using in the mornings on her way to work or school.

Right across the entrance were a few doors that Tony opened up to show held a closet, the laundry room, and a guest bathroom. There were also some built-in bookshelves near a large window behind the dining area which lead to the balcony. The inventor slid open the blinds that covered the window and Pepper gasped at the sight. She forced herself to join Tony by the sliding door but in her effort to reach him the pain became unbearable and made her face frown despite her attempts to stop it. Tony noticed this and shook his head at her before he helped her climb onto his back in the same way he had done so when he had visited her at the hospital and had taken her out to eat.

The young genius could tell that the redhead was in a lot of pain since she did not even complain about being carried and simply whispered a _thank you_ in his ear. He felt a pang of guilt for not forcing her to use the damned chair but his fears dissipated the moment that, from the corner of his eye, he saw her smile brightly at the scene before her. Right from the balcony she could see the Hudson River and its surroundings, and she wondered how beautiful the sunsets looked from here since the balcony faced west.

Tony remained standing by the balcony for a few more seconds before he turned on his heel and walked in the general direction of the kitchen. Between the bar and the wall in front of it laid a hall which led to the two bedrooms. The doors were on opposite sides of the hall, facing one another, and the only wall they shared belonged to the bathrooms located inside. He first took them to the door on the right side of the hall and were both welcomed by a room large enough to hold a queen size bed and a handful of other furniture. There was nothing spectacular about the room other than the promised walk-in-closet, the full bathroom to its left and a large window with a view of the Hudson as well.

The room on the left side of the hall was an exact mirror image of the one on the right with the only exception that the window showed the side of the building and not the river. Tony left it up to Pepper to decide which one she would like if she were to want to stay here after all and she said it did not matter; they could flip for it.

He then took them to the kitchen and eyed the double-door refrigerator, the dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave and stove and found them to be in order. The kitchen was smaller than the rest of the other rooms but being in their teens they did not expect to cook much anyway. The walls needed some color as only the primer was present on them right now, and they would need curtains and blinds, but other than that the apartment seemed ready to be lived in.

After the tour was complete, Tony returned them to the empty living room and sat them both on the wooden floors. The floors in the bedrooms had carpet, but the rest of the home – minus the bathrooms, which had tile – was covered in hardwood. They silently stared around themselves for a few minutes as if giving a final consideration to the premises before staring back at one another with a smile.

"So," Pepper began as she took out a coin from her wallet, "when do we move in?"

xxxXXXxxx

Rhodey, Pepper and Tony sat on the couch in the living room of the dynamic duo's new apartment, looking as tired and beat up as they felt. They had just finished moving the last piece of furniture into the place Pepper had wanted it to be and even though movers had been hired to bring up the furniture, the redhead had made the presence of the movers a moot point with the amount of times she had made Rhodey and Tony rearrange the furniture until it was set to her liking.

The move had taken the entire weekend to complete, leaving them exhausted and with aching muscles, but the inventor and the ginger had wanted to have everything ready before Monday so that they could go to work – Monday being Pepper's first official day as Tony's employee, in fact – without any distractions or setbacks. This meant, however, that as soon as Rhodey left to go back to his home, Tony and Pepper would have turn in to have enough rest for the next day, regardless of how early it still was.

"Pepper, I know you forgot stuff, but I didn't think you'd forgotten what someone hires movers for: so that _you_ don't have to do the work," Rhodey complained, holding his lower back with his right hand as his shaking left arm reached for the remote control of the television on the coffee table and turned it on.

"Shut it, Rhodey," Pepper said and snatched away the remote from Rhodey to choose what to watch as she tried to sound upset by his words but felt too tired to even try to pretend she was hurt by his comment. "You're the one who offered to help us move, so why are you even complaining?"

"Yes, I volunteered, but only because I didn't think I'd actually be doing much," he told Pepper with a mocking smirk the ginger ignored with a roll of her eyes and a smile of her own. He then turned to his right and narrowed his eyes at Tony before whispering his next words so that only the inventor could hear him. "Or that Iron Man would be helping out."

Tony gave him an apologetic smile and shrugged. "I'll tell her soon, I promise," he whispered back.

"Are you guys hungry?" The redhead asked as she flipped channels until she found _Breakdancing with Celebrities_. She watched the show for a few seconds before deciding this was what the trio would be watching while having dinner and set down the remote on the table again.

"I am," Rhodey replied and patted his stomach. "Least you can do is feed me after what you put me through. Now get to that kitchen, woman, and make me a sandwich!" He said in an exaggeratedly demanding tone that was colored with humor by his smile and comical mannerisms as he pointed in the direction of the stove.

Tony scoffed and waved a dismissive hand toward his friend. "Good luck with that, dude! First, Pepper can't cook; and second, Jarvis is not bringing groceries until tomorrow. As nice as that kitchen looks, there isn't any food in it right now."

Since Jarvis had been hired to watch over the mansion and it was now no longer in use, Howard had decided to make other arrangements for the retired butler. Jarvis would still maintain the mansion once a month, but he would also now make sure Pepper and Tony's pantry was stocked at all times. He would also prepare ready-to-eat meals the teens could heat up and eat whenever they felt like it, and he would also maintain the penthouse at SI in addition to the apartment.

"You don't need to know how to cook to make a sandwich." Rhodey argued. "It's just two slices of bread with meat and vegetables in the middle. How hard can it be? Even Pepper could do it!" Rhodey teased and side-hugged Pepper when she groaned at his comment.

"If you guys are gonna double-team me like this when you're together, I'm not inviting you over often, Rhodey. You should be nice to me: I'm practically disabled and mentally handicapped."

"As if!" Rhodey hugged her even tighter and kissed the top of her head. "You were already those things before your accident, Pepper. Now you just have the medical backing to justify them."

Pepper playfully slapped Rhodey's leg with her hand and he pretended to be hurt. "One day I'll learn how to cook, and when I do and everyone loves what I make, I ain't giving you anything."

Rhodey threw his head back in laughter and then shifted his left arm from hugging Pepper to resting it on the back of the couch behind her sitting form. "By the time that happens you'd forget you aren't supposed to feed me. That's gonna be, like, light-years away!"

"A light-year is a measure of distance, not time, _James_," Pepper responded and then froze. Her eyes widened, her jaw clenched and her muscles stiffened up so much that her two friends could practically feel the tension near them.

"Oh, shit. Not again," Tony eyed Rhodey with a look that warned him not to make any sudden movements and the boy complied. The inventor then stood up from the couch and motioned with his head for Rhodey to slowly slide away from the ginger that was yet to unclench her fists. Rhodey immediately complied and watched as Tony pushed the coffee table out of the way and kneeled on the floor in front of Pepper.

"What's wrong with her?" Rhodey asked in a near whisper, afraid to undo whatever Tony was trying to accomplish.

Tony methodically waved a hand over her face and then stared directly at her eyes to gage how far away she was from reality; he did not like what he saw and frowned. "She's having a flashback," Tony muttered under his breath.

"A flashback?"

"Yes. She's been having some flashbacks here and there for a few weeks now – even dreams of what happened even though she's not sure what she's seeing, but last night she had one so strong she almost fell off the balcony on me."

"What?" Rhodey asked in a loud whisper, his tone filled with concern.

Tony shook his head, still shaken by the occurrence. "We were watching the sunset, talking. She was acting normal, laughing and then all of a sudden she got up from the chair, walked up to the rail and pushed herself up on the edge. I thought she was trying to see the sunset that much closer but she began tipping over…" he closed his eyes and even from the distance Rhodey could see the inventor's knuckles turn white. "I almost didn't catch her."

"Did you call on you-know-who?"

"No. I didn't need to and I don't have my suit here yet."

"Maybe you should."

"Yes, I'll bring over my backpack, at least."

The whimper coming from the redhead made the two friends stare at her in time to see the tears streaming down her face. She then closed her eyes and frowned in what could only be pain, took in deep, calming breaths and then opened her eyes again. "Tony?"

"Yes, I'm here," he whispered to her and he could tell by the way her eyes shifted and her head moved left and right that she was having a difficult time finding him, focusing on him, even though he was mere inches from her. "Is it over?"

"I think so," she said and her chin trembled. "I…I want to go to bed…"

The genius's frown deepened but he nodded. "I'll save you some dinner."

"OK. Thanks," she responded and acted like nothing more than a puppet when Tony stood up, lifted her in his arms and carried her to her room. A few moments later the inventor returned to the living room and dropped on the couch. He rested his head on the back of the couch and covered his face with his hands, muffling a long string of colorful words that showed his frustrations.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Rhodey's accusing tone did not escape Tony.

"It's her business. If she wants to tell you, she'll tell you." Tony responded after removing his hands from his face and stared at Rhodey as he walked over to the couch and sat next to the blue-eyed boy. Rhodey had a retort ready for him but when he realized Tony's reasoning was true, he decided to let the issue go for now.

"Is she going to be alright?"

"She'll probably sleep until tomorrow."

"And then?"

"And then we go to work and hope it doesn't happen again."

"Unlikely, man, and you know it. She needs medical help, sedatives even. This can't be normal."

"It is," Tony argued. "I looked it up. This is what would've happened to her if she hadn't forgotten what happened. It's slowly coming back to her and it's causing her to hallucinate. We just have to take it one day at a time."

"No, Tony. You don't understand. She needs to see a doctor, get medication; keep it under control. What if she tries jumping a building next time and you aren't there to catch her?"

Tony swallowed hard. He had not thought about that. "We work together. We live together. I'll be there to catch her."

"What if you are out on a mission? What if you are taking a shower and she slits her wrists in the next room?"

"Pepper's not suicidal!" The angry inventor spat and stood up from the couch. "She's loud and chatty and crazy for staying with me, but NOT suicidal!"

"Maybe not the Pepper we know and are used to, but someone who survived whatever Whitney did to her, might. This Pepper might"

"I'll," Tony swallowed hard and walked over to the kitchen to put some space between him and his walking conscious; he hated when everyone but him was right. "I'll talk to her about it."

Rhodey eyed the hall that led to the rooms to make sure the ginger was not hiding in the shadows and he then walked over to Tony and stood next to him. "How is it going with you? How are you dealing with this?"

"With what?"

"This," Rhodey made a sweeping gesture with his right hand of his surroundings. "You hired her for your company, you got an apartment together, you spend every day together…are you sure this is the best thing to do? Are you sure you're both ready for this?"

"You make it sound as if I proposed to her."

"Might as well have," Rhodey shrugged. "What are you trying to accomplish?"

"I want to help her. Her parents are not here and she has no one else. She doesn't know who she is and she's trying so hard to make it on her own. She needs help. Why is that so difficult for anyone to understand?"

"Because we know there's more to it and not just guilt on your part. You could've helped her in other ways but you're making her depend on you; reach out to you to survive. How exactly are you helping her by doing this? By making her think she needs you to live?"

"By giving her what she needs until she can do it herself. This, the apartment together, it's just a tryout; it's not definite. We agreed that if she doesn't like the arrangement, we'll get our separate places next year."

"Why next year?"

"To give her time to find herself and save up so that she can move out. To get ready to be on her own if that's what she wants to do."

"And if she does choose to move out, then what? What is your great plan then?"

"I…I let her go." Tony grabbed onto the edge of the counter to keep himself from hyperventilating himself into unconsciousness.

Rhodey folded his arms over his chest and stared at Tony up and down with a skeptical look on his face. "You'd think, with everything you've done for her so far, that you'd try to convince her to stay."

"I would but I can't. I made a promise. I made a promise to let her go."

Rhodey's head recoiled in surprise. "To who?"

"Gene," Tony uttered the name with so much hatred that Rhodey thought the inventor would sputter foam from his mouth any time now. "He not only showed me, he made me _feel_ everything that Pepper went through because of me and…and I can't let that happen to her again. No one is ever touching her again because of me."

"What if she falls for you again? What would you do then?"

"It won't happen."

"Really? Living and working together won't make her get a crush on you again?"

"It won't. I'm not leading her on." Tony responded and Rhodey snorted.

"I doubt you aren't leading her, even if just unintentionally, and even before, when you guys first met, you never led her on and she still fell for you. What makes you think it won't happen again? She's remembering, right? How long will it be until she remembers you guys used to go out? What are you going to tell her if she wants to start things over between you two? Continue where you left of?"

"It won't happen," the inventor said between clenched teeth and closed his eyes. "I won't let her. I can't…we can't…We're just friends. Good friends. Just like before."

"You loved her before, when you were just friends, and I know that you still love her."

Tony looked away even though his eyes were closed. "Your point?"

"Be careful and make up your damned mind. I see the way you look at her, the way you treat her. You're leading her on. Either be ready to make it clear that you're not interested in her that way, or be ready to take on the consequences of being together again, but for fucks' sake don't break her heart again."

"It'll be alright. In four weeks she'll start going to college. She'll meet someone else. She'll…she'll fall in love with someone else." Even just saying the words made his heart ache.

"Where is she going?"

"Empire State."

"She got accepted? This late?"

"They were thrilled to have Rescue on their campus. They made an exception to the deadline. Northeast University also wanted her."

"Does she know why she got accepted?"

"No. I can't tell her about Rescue until I tell her about Iron Man."

"Won't the college tell her?"

"She'll know before that. I'm going to slowly start easing her into it tomorrow."

Rhodey smirked. "You know she has a crush on War Machine, right? She told me earlier today. Maybe the other guy she falls in love with me is me." He teased.

"Fuck you," Tony spat but then sighed in resignation when a thought dawned on him. "But if it's not me, I guess you'd be the next best thing."

Rhodey was surprised by the seriousness of Tony's tone. "Dude, I'm just kidding."

"I'm not. Better you than Gene."

"Or Happy?" Rhodey offered.

"Or me."

The silence between them grew heavy, so Rhodey cleared his throat and took his leave. Tony thanked him for the help and Rhodey reminded him to make up his mind and Tony rolled his eyes. It was so easy for everyone to tell him he had to make up his mind because they did not have to do it. None of them had been with Pepper as often as he was. None of them knew what it felt like to not be able to tell Pepper how he felt for her, and how he still did. Telling him to do something they did not have to do themselves was enraging to him; insulting even. They could not possibly understand how hard it was to do what he had to do.

_"Only if you try to do it alone,"_ Pepper's words returned to him and he frowned. _Maybe I don't have to do it alone_, he mused. _Maybe I need help._

The inventor turned off the lights of the kitchen and the living room on his way to his room. He slowly opened and closed his door not to wake Pepper up and once inside his dwelling he took out his Stark Pod from his pocket. He dialed a number he never thought he would dial and waited for a couple of rings until the receiver answered the call.

"Hi, it's me: Tony," he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. "Are you free Friday night?"

xxxXXXxxx

_"Then I guess it's going to be a long last month at school, huh? Or a very long life, if those rules still apply after graduation." Tony said with a soft smile. She narrowed her eyes at him as his words repeated in her mind, and once she understood what he had meant, she blushed._

_ She heard him chuckle when she rested her forehead on his chest to hide her flushed face, groaning and cursing under her breath at his damned charm. "You are thinking way ahead of yourself, Tony. Like, light-years ahead."_

_ "A light-year is a measure of distance, not time, Pep."_

_ She shook her head but could still feel the heat in her cheeks, so she remained pressed against him while she got a hold of herself. "Whatever, nerd. You know what I mean."_

The redhead silently cried in the privacy of her room as she remembered the flashbacks that had sent her to bed earlier than expected today. She had been having such a great time with Tony and Rhodey, and her damned episode just had to come and ruin her fun. The images, sounds, _feelings_ had been as vivid as the flashback she had had the night before on the balcony, although this time they had not been of her being kept in a dark, cold place and her trying to escape it by jumping off a ledge. This time the flashbacks had been of _them_.

She had not known why the phrase had triggered the flashback until she had heard the line being said by the inventor himself. That memory had triggered another one, which had then triggered the next and the next.

"_True, but the problem at hand is happening in the Tomorrow Academy. And that, my Pep, is your area of expertise."_

"_I think you're totally trying to force me to come up with a plan all on my own, but since you're asking so nicely, I'm willing to overlook it."_

_It was Tony's turn to laugh wholeheartedly. "No way, Pepper. I'm in this as much as you are. I just think that my ideas would involve throwing money at the school and I somehow think that won't solve the crazy fan girls problem."_

"_Remind me one of these days to show you why money doesn't solve everything, K?" She said as she straightened out herself and twisted her body to face his. Tony mimicked her posture._

"_I will do so, but only if you remind me to explain to you why light-years don't measure time," he responded, causing the redhead to roll her eyes._

"_Deal," she said. "Now," she hit her open left palm with her right fist. "Let's come up a way to fight back."_

Pepper held her head in her hands, slowly rocking back and forth on the edge of her bed. _What plan? What did we do?_ _Where were we? What was that building?_

The location seemed to appear in many of her flashbacks and she had to wonder what the significance of its location was. She knew Tony would know about it, but she was being very careful not to let him know she knew about their past together; it was already difficult enough for him to talk to her about random bits and pieces of her kidnapping and she knew it would only complicate things between them if he were to become aware that she knew what they had been at some point.

The location she had seen in her third flashback of today, however, was tempting enough for her to ask him about. The room she had seen was the most mysterious one of all she had encountered in dreams and flashbacks as it appeared it to be a lab but not the one she knew from the mansion. This lab was larger, more equipped than the one she knew about, and it held doors with large numbers written on them on a circular platform above the ground_. It was probably in Stark Tower. It had to be there._

The lab was not her main concern, however; their conversation was.

_"Tony?"_

_ "Feel free to leave whenever you want. I won't be back for a while."_

_ "But, Tony?"_

_ "Roberta thinks it's best if we don't see each other for a while. And I think it's best if we don't see each other anymore."_

_ "TONY!" Pepper yelled in panic. "That's not…I…Will you please listen to me?"_

_ The inventor, who had just finished putting on his shoes and was still not looking at her, began walking toward the front door. "I've listened to enough from you, Patricia. I'm done playing this game with you."_

The waterworks came again. It was not so much that the argument was painful to hear, but for some reason she could _feel_ the fear in her heart. This was why she had cried at the end of her episode. She had felt an immense amount of pain inside; the pain that only comes from losing the one you love.

_Game? Love? What game is he talking about? What did I do to him? Why would I hurt him if I…if I…loved him?_

Love. If she had loved him, had he loved her, too? Did he still love her?

_No. He's going out with Maya. He doesn't love me and I don't love him._

Or did she?

_I don't. I don't. I don't._

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and stood up from the bed. She walked over to the bathroom and washed her face and blew her nose; sleep had abandoned her. She tiptoed to her door and opened it up to head to the kitchen to take a couple of sleeping pills but she stopped in her tracks when she saw him standing by his doorway, staring directly at her.

_I don't. I don't. I don't._

And yet she was frozen where she stood.

"Are you feeling any better?" He asked but did not move.

All she wanted was to nod to him but she knew the light coming in from the windows in their rooms was not enough for him to see her clearly. "Can't sleep."

"Want some milk?"

"No. Something stronger. I'm resorting to science this time around."

"Pills?"

"Yes."

"I'll get them for you." He said and left before she could respond. Two minutes later he was back, stood by her door this time around, pills and water in hand. "Here."

She took them without a second thought and when she handed the glass back to him, he used it to pop a couple of pills of his own. "Can't sleep either. I'm worried about you."

"Don't be," she replied and looked down at the floor. If her flashbacks continued, if they became revelations of possible intimate moments between them, she was not sure she could ever stare at him in the face ever again. "Pills will knock me right out. I won't be jumping off any balconies tonight."

_"No, Tony. You don't understand. She needs to see a doctor, get medication; keep it under control. What if she tries jumping a building next time and you aren't there to catch her?"_

_ Tony swallowed hard. He had not thought about that. "We work together. We live together. I'll be there to catch her."_

_ "What if you are out on a mission? What if you are taking a shower and she slits her wrists in the next room?"_

"Do you want me to lock the balcony from now on? I can make a locking mechanism you wouldn't be able to undo if sleepwalking or…well, you know."

"I don't think it would help if it happens when I'm already outside, but thank you," she whispered, still unable to look at him and hugged herself.

"What's wrong, Pep?" He propped himself against either side of the door frame and leaned forward and down to try to find her downcast face. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes…no…I'm not sure."

"Talk to me."

"I," she croaked. "I'm scared, Tony."

"Did the flashback scare you? Did you see more of what was done to you?"

"Yes," she lied. "But that's not what worries me."

"Then what is it?"

"You. I…I know you took a gamble bringing me in. I just…I don't want to fail you and I feel that these flashbacks are going to get you in trouble with the board."

"There's nothing the board has to do with my company. They don't even have to know about them. It's just between you and me. I'm not saying anything."

"You don't have to tell them. I can't control them. They could happen at work; they could happen at a place that everyone could see. I just don't understand why they are happening now. I know I said I wanted to remember, but not like this."

_"Pepper's not suicidal!" The angry inventor spat and stood up from the couch. "She's loud and chatty and crazy for staying with me, but NOT suicidal!"_

_ "Maybe not the Pepper we know and are used to, but someone who survived whatever Whitney did to her, might. This Pepper might"_

_ "I'll," Tony swallowed hard and walked over to the kitchen to put some space between him and his walking conscious; he hated when everyone but him was right. "I'll talk to her about it."_

"Maybe we can look for options…options to try to control them."

Pepper laughed bitterly. "You mean locking me up at a psych ward?"

_"This is outrageous!" Clark Morrison spat. "You expect us to rely on someone who was abducted and has no recollection of who she is to help you achieve the same success you've had in the past? She belongs in a mental hospital and NOT in our source of income!"_

"No," he deadpanned, trying to keep from his voice the anger the memory caused him. "I'd never do that to you."

"You don't have to. If anyone else finds out, I might be forced to do it."

"I won't let them," he said, resolute. "I won't let them do anything like that to you."

"Not much you can do about it, Tony. I'm a minor; they'll call my mom."

"An emancipated minor."

"With no other relatives but my mother to make health decisions for me if I'm deemed mentally unstable."

Tony narrowed his eyes as a recent happening returned to him.

"_If you guys are gonna double-team me like this when you're together, I'm not inviting you over often, Rhodey. You should be nice to me: I'm practically disabled and mentally handicapped."_

_She believes it_, he told himself with anger. _She believes she's losing it._

"Pepper," he whispered and forced her to face him. Even though he was now holding her chin with his right hand, her eyes still looked down at his chest. "Look at me, Pepper."

She closed her eyes instead when she felt the tears coming back. She could not face him. She could not force herself to stare at his eyes; she was afraid her stare would betray her thoughts. He could not find out she knew about them; about what they had once both felt for each other. He could not find out she was falling in love with him again.

_I'm not. I'm not. I'm not._

"Please, Pepper, look at me."

She swallowed hard but finally relented and the moment her eyes locked with his, she wished they had not.

"You're going to have more memories of what happened to you and they're going to be painful; extremely painful. I don't want you to feel bad about having those episodes. They are NOT your fault. If you want we can go to a doctor to give you something for calming you down, or maybe you can talk to someone about them – a professional, although I wish you'd just talk to me about it. I'm right here, Pepper. I'm here for you."

She heard his words, understood them, but all she could think about was about what she had done to him to hurt him. What had she done to him that he would break up with her? What kind of irreparable damage had she caused for them to break up? Why was he still helping her after whatever pain she had inflicted upon him? Was her presumption that he just wanted to be friends, wrong?

_Maya Hansen. He likes Maya Hansen_, she had to remind herself.

"I know you are," she finally said. "I'll think about what you said. It might do me some good."

"Don't do it for me," he added. "Do it for you. Do it only if it makes you feel better; only if you feel it's worth your time."

She closed her eyes, nodded and then pulled away from his grasp. "Thank you, Tony. Again, thank you for watching out for me."

"Always, Pepper," he kissed her forehead. "Always."

She watched him return to his room and stand by the doorway until she closed her door. She turned around in place and pressed her back against the door.

_"You wouldn't owe me; I'd paid you," he winked at her and her heart nearly stopped. How could she hope to work with him every day if one brush of his hand or a smile of his now made her weak in the knees? She was not in love with him or anything, but now that she knew what they had had in the past she could not help but feeling somewhat vulnerable to his charm._

"Not in love with him?" She whispered incredulously to no one and then hung her head in shame. _I am. I am. I am._

* * *

**A/N:** Want to see the inspiration for their apartment? Check out my profile to find the link. If you read and liked, don't forget to review. See you next week!


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Pepper typed furiously on her laptop at her work desk while Tony worked on a design in his virtual design maker in the middle of the Stark Solutions office. The ginger had spent most of last week rearranging the furniture available to make it seem more like an office and less like a storage room and had gone as far as giving Tony an orientation and instructions regarding the _work areas_ she had established around the large room for him to use.

_"This is for you to display and keep prototypes. This over here is for you to print and hang your schematics, and this here in the middle is for your brainstorming sessions using the virtual, 3D designer. Oh! And that over there is for you to pretend you're working when you don't want to see visitors."_

He had laughed aloud at the last one.

She had also cleaned up his private office and made it seem like what the office of any respectable CEO should look like. She had earned a scold from Tony after she had ended up crying in pain, caused by when she had pulled the weak muscle of her still recovering leg with her efforts to move furniture after the maintenance guys who had been helping her had left for the day, but she had assured him that the pain had been worth it. She was determined to show Tony as the business owner he was to earn him the respect she knew he deserved.

_Tony Stark: has a big heart. _Her mnemonic phrase for him had yet again changed.

They had also come up with a system for handling outside inquiries, even from the SI board. Anyone who wanted to speak with Tony would first have to go through Pepper. If the person was unknown, she would use her resources to run a background check on the person and compile the most important information about them to know them better than they knew themselves before they walked through their doors. Regardless of the visitor, their first appointment would always be with the ginger, and if she deemed the visit with Tony unnecessary, said person would never get to see or speak with the inventor at all.

_"No sense in wasting your time,"_ she had told him. _"Your life is busy as it is."_

Even Maya Hansen had to wait her turn, and their date on Friday was on his schedule. Pepper would make sure he did not forget about it and actually showed up to the brunette's home to pick her up for dinner. The fact that she was making sure Tony did not ditch the poor girl made her extraordinarily sad and disappointed, but she knew it had to be done. Pepper was certain Tony was more than interested in Maya and not in his best friend/roommate.

"Hey, Pep," Tony called from his position by the VR Designer. "Are you getting hungry at all? What's the menu for today?"

"Jarvis is bringing us sandwiches and fries."

"When?"

She eyed the clock by the bottom right corner of the screen. "In t-minus ten minutes."

"Can't be here soon enough. I'm starving."

She shook her head playfully and smiled at him before returning her attention to the laptop's screen. She continued typing and clicking here and there, and five minutes later she cleared her throat. "Tony, the patent check is ready. The RT-149 has been cleared of potential trademark and patent issues."

"Perfect!" Tony said and took a step back from the VR Designer to give his virtual design a look from a different viewpoint. "Schedule us for a brainstorming session for it on Wednesday morning."

"Any particular time?"

"No. Whatever is available."

"Alright." She replied and added the reminder to their calendar. "By the way, Mitch Richards wants to meet with you. I told him the protocol but he refuses to meet with me."

"Did you schedule a meeting with me and him, then?"

"Nope. He has to follow protocol; I don't give a rat's ass if he's a board member. I'm just telling you in case he tries to go around it and corral you in the bathroom or something like that."

"Noted," he said with a chuckle, saved the design he had been working on all morning and turned off the VR Designer. The inventor then walked to Pepper's desk, sat in the chair across from her end of the workstation and frowned at the ridiculous arrangement she had bought at a store last week. "How can you not get tired of this?" he pointed at the swinging sticks with disdain.

"It helps me relax," she said without having to remove her eyes from the screen. She knew exactly what he was talking about; he had been complaining about how the "miniaturized, cheap Ferris Wheel knockoff" drove him insane. "You have your video game console, I have this."

"My video game console used to help you relax, too."

"Not anymore," she sing-songed and then suddenly sat up straight. Her eyes shifted to her right and when she saw Tony was about to speak again she held up her left hand. Her right index finger then double-tapped her earpiece and she spoke up. "Stark Solutions Headquarters. This is Pepper Potts. Who am I speaking with today?"

Tony covered his laugh behind both of his hands on his mouth, earning him a glare from the redhead before she continued speaking. "Yes, you have the correct number. No, he is unavailable at the moment. Yes, I can put you in the books. Tomorrow morning alright with you? 10:30 AM. Yes, perfect. Alright. We'll see you then. Goodbye."

Pepper cleared her throat to symbolize the call had ended and she continued working on her next task on her laptop. Tony raised a single eyebrow at her, waiting for her to relay any information but when she did not, Tony pushed the laptop screen slightly forward to get her attention. "Uh, Pepper, who was that?"

"Your dad," she answered nonchalantly and then straightened out her laptop's screen to continue working.

"What?" Tony was taken aback. "My dad? What did he want?"

"To talk to you about last month's profits before the board meeting tomorrow." She said and then took down some notes on a small sticky note.

"Why didn't he call me?" He asked and leaned back in the chair, staring at her.

"He did," she flashed him a small smile.

Tony furrowed his brows in confusion and then looked down at his pod. He had no missed calls. "When did he call?"

"Just now."

"But, I didn't get a call."

"Nope. I reprogrammed our pods so that all calls are routed to me first. I'll screen them and pass on the message or appointment to you."

Tony bit down on his lip, trying very hard to hold back a smile. "So, my dad…the CEO of Stark International, just called me and you told him he has to wait?"

"That'd be correct."

"And he was OK with that?"

"Not much choice. I'm Pepper Potts; your gatekeeper. Besides, I know you hate reviewing profit reports. I'll write out a summary for you."

Tony remained quiet for a while, studying her form for a few minutes and then cracked a smile. "Did you seriously just make my dad wait for an appointment?"

"I surely did," she said with a smile of her own before they both began laughing aloud until tears began to appear. Once the laughter stopped, Tony stood up from the chair, walked over to Pepper and kissed her cheek.

"I love you, Potts!" He hugged her from the side and the redhead held her breath. "I should've brought you in sooner!"

Pepper swallowed hard and nervously patted the arm he was resting right above her neckline with her right hand. "Don't get too excited. Sooner or later you'll hate it that I'll be riding your butt every second of every day of your life until you die."

Tony scoffed, stood up straight and placed his arms behind his neck. "It wouldn't be the worst thing," he said with a wink and a shrug and before Pepper could respond, Jarvis appeared at the door with today's lunch.

xxxXXXxxx

A few hours later, Tony and Pepper exited Stark Tower through the front door and ignored the curious looks some bystanders were giving them. Pepper still had to walk slowly due to her leg injury but she refused to attach herself to another set of crutches or a wheelchair. Tony had tried to coax her into trying out the _recent additions_ to the Pep Ride but Pepper had quickly caught him in his lie when she had pulled up the logs of the schematics to show there had been no recent upgrades of any kind.

_It's getting harder to lie to her_, Tony thought as he walked next to her in the parking lot and toward his bike and worked on rerouting Iron Man calls back to his pod only. It appeared that Pepper was remembering how to reprogram his devices faster than he thought she would and it had been only a miracle that today Pepper had not received a communication from the computer back at the Makluan Temple to inform her of a mission call.

He finished his task just in time before they stopped in front of his Stark Bike. He put away his pod back inside his pants pocket and helped the ginger get on the vehicle. He then climbed on it at the front and he was immediately handed one of the two helmets he kept in the compartment on the back of the bike. Without a word they both secured the protective devices over their heads and seconds later Tony felt Pepper's arms surround him.

"Ready, Pep?" He asked via the communication device the helmets shared as he stared back at her over his shoulder.

"Yes," she responded and she rested the side of her face on his back. Tony returned his attention to the front of the bike and revved it up a few times as he waited for a few passing vehicles to get out of the way. He then sped out of the parking lot and they rode in silence for a few minutes until he felt the redhead readjust her position for the third time since they had left work.

_"Something wrong?"_ She heard him ask over their inner communication system and she sighed. Nothing escaped his watchful eye, it seemed.

"My leg is numbing up," she replied, not even bothering to lie about her discomfort, and adjusted her position again. "It didn't do this in the morning."

"Leg's probably tired from the day," he offered as they rounded a corner a little faster than necessary and he smirked in satisfaction when Pepper held on even tighter to him. Even though he had a date with Maya Hansen this Friday and was trying his best to convince himself that he was going to become serious with the brunette, the ginger behind him still had his undivided attention and heart. "We can use the car tomorrow, if you prefer."

"I don't think it's that. I'll ask my physical therapist about it, today. I kinda like riding the bike." She admitted to him with a blush she knew he could not see but that did not stop him from grinning at the thought of Pepper wanting to ride the bike with him.

"What time's the appointment?" He asked, trying to keep the silly smile he currently sported from his tone of voice.

"Six."

Tony eyed the clock on the screen of the bike and noticed they had about an hour before the physical therapist Pepper had been assigned showed up at their apartment. They were supposed to leave half an hour early today but their brainstorming session for the improvements to their quality control systems had gone longer than anticipated. "Don't worry. I'll get us there on time."

"I know you will. All I want is enough time to shower before she shows up."

"Alright," he stated simply and then remained silent as he was not sure what to add to her statement. A couple of minutes later he slowed down the bike to a complete stop when they arrived at a red light near the apartment complex. Pepper released his grip on him a little, seeing no need to keep crushing his ribcage, but he stopped her movement by securing her hands in his and returning them to his chest. "No," he began, "light can change at any moment. I don't want to throw you off when we start again."

The inventor felt her grip tighten again after he released her hands he had left on his chest and he attributed it to his recommendation of staying put, but the true reason why Pepper had tensed up was not the one he thought it was. The redhead closed her eyes tightly and felt her jaw clench, just as it had yesterday, barely leaving her the ability to hyperventilate through the incoming flashback.

_Pepper smiled and retracted her hand from him only to surround his body from behind, snaking her arms around his waist. She was much shorter than Tony, so she was not able to rest her chin on his shoulder as she would have liked, so she opted to rest the side of her face on his back. Tony covered her arms on his stomach with his own arms and leaned his back closer toward her._

_ "Pepper…" _

_ "It's over."_

_ "What's over?"_

_ "Me and Happy. It's over."_

_ Tony let out the small gasp. "Why?" _

_ "Because I…because I ended it with him, today –after school."_

_ When Pepper began to pull back from him, he quickly tightened his grip on her and shook his head. "No."_

_ The forceful yet gentle command made her stop her efforts to move away. He then laced his right hand on hers and pressed them both onto his chest. Pepper was surprised to feel how rapid his heart was working, and she wondered if he could feel her similarly pounding one through his shirt on his back._

_ "That's all your doing, Pep." _

Next thing she knew, her purple helmet was being taken off. Before her no longer was his back but his face, staring down at her with a knowing look. She held his gaze for a moment and then her eyes slowly traveled down to his chest, willing herself to somehow feel his racing heart again. She gulped and closed her eyes, and again as a puppet he carried her on his back inside the complex and up to their apartment.

Not a word was said on their trek to the couch and he carefully deposited her on it. She remained motionless as he got down on the ground and took off her shoes. He then returned to the couch and sat next to her, staring at her from the corner of his eye, uncertain of what to do next. "Do you want me to reschedule the therapy?"

"No. I'll be fine. I just need a moment."

"OK." He cleared his throat. "Do you…do you want to talk about it?"

"No," she said and he furrowed his brows; he knew it was a lie.

"Pepper," he began and reached over to touch her leg, "You should -"

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Tony flinched and then frowned, the hand that was about to touch her turned into a fist.

"Fine," he mumbled, stood up from the couch and ran his right hand through his hair. He stared back and forth a few times between the entrance door and where Pepper sat before letting out a frustrated groan and walked toward his room. He was never going to walk too far away from her while mad ever again; last time he had done so she had left him for good. He was not making the same mistake once more. "You know where I am," he said before she heard the door to his bedroom slam shut.

She remained on the couch for a long time, right as he had left her, albeit with eyes closed. She took in deep breaths to calm down, and when she finally felt more in control of her own body she stood up and walked to her room. She only had less than half an hour to shower and change before her physical therapist showed up. She no longer felt like going through her first session of treatment but she knew the more she put it off the longer her recovery would take.

Even with the knowledge of the time constraint she remained under the stream of water longer than she should have. Her mind replayed the memory over and over again, and the more she heard his words, the angrier she got at herself for whatever she had done for him to break up with her.

_"That's all your doing, Pep."_

His words had sounded so sincere to her.

_He loved me. He'd have to have loved me. Why, then? Why did it end? When did it end?_

She rested her weight against the wall by placing her forehead on the now warm tile and closed her eyes again. She knew that she had spent two weeks at the hospital and it had been two weeks since she had left it. She had woken up by the end of June and Rhodey had told her school had ended the last week of May.

No one had explained to her the details of her disappearance yet but she figured it had happened sometime between May and June since she had been told she had been in a coma for two weeks. Tony had given her her high school diploma and had told her she had missed graduation day, and Rhodey had confirmed it when he had given her the honor cords she had earned. When she applied to colleges a couple of weeks ago she had noticed that the last normal deadline for applications had been during the middle of May, which meant that she either had not sent her applications on time because she had forgotten or because she had not been around to do so.

_Probably not around. Didn't Tony say no one knew I was gone? Why would no one notice I was gone?_

"_Pepper?"_ His voice and his knock on her bathroom door snapped her out of her thoughts and she immediately shut off the shower.

"Yeah?" She slid open the door of the shower/tub and wrapped a towel around her body.

"_Your therapist is here."_ His tone of voice was difficult to discern; she was unable to tell if he was still mad at her for snapping at him for no apparent reason. He probably thought it had been due to her flashback, but she was in fact not sure herself why she had yelled at him in the first place.

"I'll be out in a minute. Thanks."

"_OK."_

She heard his steps retreat and when she heard the door open and close again, she knew he was gone. She quickly patted her body dry and held her hair up in a messy bun, not bothering to dry her hair. She then threw on the yoga pants and t-shirt that had been recommend she wore for these sessions and walked as fast as she could out of the bathroom, her room, down the hall and into the living room.

"I'm sorry I'm late," she began when she neared the living room, "I lost track of the…time…and…uhm…who are you?"

This was a surprise, and she could tell by the frown on Tony's face that it was a surprise to him, too. She cleared her voice and tilted her head to the side as she closed the distance between her and the gorgeous, well-built _male_ physical therapist standing by the couch. "You don't look like Marie," Pepper said, hoping she was not blushing.

"I would hope not," the man smiled brightly and extended his hand toward Pepper. "I'm Josh. I'm replacing Marie."

"For today?" Pepper asked and returned the handshake with a skeptical look. "I wasn't notified that she was out."

"Yeah, sorry about that. It was a last minute thing. She threw her back."

"What? How? Is she OK?" The ginger asked with genuine concern and became entrapped in the conversation, completely unaware that a fuming Tony was standing by the balcony doors, eyeing every move the muscular man made near his ginger.

"She was moving apartments this weekend and stretched more than she should've. Ironic, considering she should've known better."

"Aw, no!" Pepper's hands flew to her cheeks. "That's awful! How long is she going to be out? Is she at the hospital?"

"I'm not sure. The specifics are not released to the rest of us for her personal protection but I do know she's going to be out for a while. I hope you don't mind me replacing her. I can definitely call the office and have someone else stop by if you prefer."

"Oh, no, nonsense! You're fine, I just…I wasn't expecting anyone other than her. I'm sorry if I sounded rude."

"No, it's alright. I just thought that maybe your boyfriend would mind me being here with you," he said and pointed behind them with a thumb towards Tony.

Pepper's eyes followed the path of his finger and then remembered Tony was still there and she shook her head. "Oh, no, he's not…we're not…we're just roommates."

"Really?" He stared back and forth between Tony and Pepper. "I thought you guys were dating."

"No, we're not," Tony said in a warning tone. Marie was aware of Pepper's situation and knew better than to make such comments, but this Josh person had obviously not been told to keep his mouth shut. "You're mistaken."

"Yeah, sorry. We just share expenses," Pepper assured the man and redirected his attention back to her. "Anyway, want to get this started? My leg is really hurting."

"Sure," Josh responded and looked left and right. "Is it OK if we move this coffee table? I'd like for us to stretch here on the rug."

"Go ahead. Would you like something to drink? Some water, maybe?"

"No, I'm alright," Josh responded. "Just give me a moment to set up and I'll be ready for you."

"OK, thanks. I'll be right back," she replied and walked over to Tony who by now had opened the balcony door and was standing outside. The ginger closed the balcony door behind her and approached Tony with careful steps. He did not immediately acknowledge her presence and instead silently stared at the sunset, hands in his pockets. When she realized he was not going to say anything she cleared her throat and wrung her hands on her stomach before she finally spoke up. "Tony, listen, about what I did…"

"Forget it, Pepper," he interrupted her but did not face her. "It's nothing. I shouldn't have bothered you."

"But you didn't bother me. I…I had no right to yell at you. I'm sorry. I…I don't know why I did it."

"I obviously upset you," he said and finally turned to face her. "I don't know what I did exactly but I'm still sorry."

"Don't apologize, please," she shook her head, took a step closer to him and pressed her hand firmly over his chest. "It was my fault. You-you didn't do anything wrong."

For a moment she was not sure if she was still talking about her screaming at him or about breaking his heart at some point in the past.

"_That's all your doing, Pep." _The words returned to her to mock her.

"I –" her voice caught in her throat when she felt how fast his heart was beating. "I…"

"Are you ready?" Josh's voice near them stopped her and she pulled her hand away from Tony. He gave Josh a nasty look the man did not seem to be bothered by but he still returned to the living room and waited inside for Pepper to join him.

"Go ahead, Pep," he pointed to the door with his chin. "I'm gonna go meet up with Rhodey. Will you be alright alone with him?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just, please don't be mad at me."

He gave her a one-sided smirk and then leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. "Never," he whispered to her.

The redhead visibly relaxed and gave him a quick hug before she returned to the apartment to begin her first session. Tony, on the other hand, left the apartment with the destination of the Makluan Temple to discuss Iron Man business with War Machine.

xxxXXXxxx

By the looks the redhead was receiving from half of the board members she could have sworn she had grown two heads and four sets of eyes on her way to the meeting room from Stark Solutions. Even if they were only holographic images, the frowns and looks of irritation were evident in many of their wrinkled faces, making her feel even more uncomfortable with the situation. She was not sure why Tony had insisted on bringing her over with him to today's meeting but here she was.

She pretended that she was not seeing the finger pointing or hearing the angry whispers that carried her name by staring down at the electronic tablet in her hands. The screen was not even on but her eyes were glued to it no matter what. She then almost jumped in her seat when she felt a hand rest on her left knee and gave it a reassuring squeeze, right under the table, and out of the field of vision of the disapproving board members.

"It'll be alright, Pepper," Tony whispered in her ear and had she not been in an already uncomfortable situation she would have blushed at how close he was. She then shifted her head so that she could speak in a hushed voice to him and tried her best to keep nervous laughter from coming out.

"Are you sure it's OK for me to be here? I'm not a board member. What if they kick me out?"

"There's nothing against it in the bylaws. Just relax, alright?"

"I'm trying."

"I know; you'll do great," he smiled at her one last time before he straightened out in his chair again and the ginger mimicked his move when they both heard the meeting being called to order. As it was customary, the ten board members were sitting on the left and right sides of the long table – five on each end. Howard sat at the front end of the table and Pepper and Tony sat at the opposite side of where Howard sat.

"Our agenda for the day is minimal," Howard said in his usual nonchalant tone of voice, "but I think what Tony has brought for us is going to be very exciting."

"You mean other than bringing over his slave?" Mitch said, not at all trying to disguise his insult toward the redhead and not at all intimidated by the glare Tony threw his way. "Why is she here?"

"Mitch," Diane said in a warning tone. "Let's act like civilized people in front of our guest, even if just for today."

"Guest? I didn't know today was 'bring your girlfriend over to work' day."

"Don't worry, Mitch," Tony began, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. "Next Thursday is 'bring your boyfriend over to work' and you'll have your chance." The inventor did not have anything against homosexuality himself, but he was aware that Mitch was quite the homophobic.

Said man pursed his lips and waved a hand dismissively at the young inventor and his companion and redirected his attention toward Howard.

"Anyway," Howard cleared his throat. "As you already reviewed, the last month's profits were double what we were expecting. It appears the rumors of the upcoming Stark Bike have given the company some edge over our competitors."

"Even Hammer Multinational," Roland Green, a middle-aged board member said. "I heard this morning that they had a security breach in their labs and they are already so out of it right now that they don't even know what was taken."

Tony and Pepper exchanged a glance and a small nod and Pepper began pulling up all the information she could on the break in. Pepper was yet to remember everything about their former competitor Hammer Multinational, but the little she had found out about them was enough for her to know it was a company that had at one point ruined Tony's life. They had been the ones that had almost left him in the streets, even more efficiently than when Obadiah Stane had once tried on his own.

"Hammer Multinational will soon disappear from the map. With Justin Hammer gone and Sasha Hammer left with almost no investors and funds, it's a surprise the company is still open for business," Keith Sutherland said.

"Not even S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attempts at keeping their only weapons manufacturer from falling into ruins are helping," Howard said with a shrug. "But Hammer's collapse is not what we're here to talk about. Tony?"

The inventor cleared his throat and stood up from his chair. "I don't have much to say other than two things: 1) everyone: this is Pepper Potts, my new research partner and personal assistant for Stark Solutions," he pointed to Pepper. "She'll be your point of contact with me from now on, and she came over here with me today so that you can meet her and know who she is; and, 2) our prototype for the new Stark Bike will be ready Friday morning and we'll start marketing its arrival with full-force next week. Questions?"

"I have a question," Mitch began but was interrupted by Tony.

"An intelligent question?"

"Why do we have to make appointments with your secretary to see you?" Mitch asked, blatantly overlooking Tony's rude comment.

"I don't have a secretary. I have a research partner," Tony said without missing a beat and sat down back in his chair.

"Research partner? She's nothing more than a glorified secretary," Mitch said with a snort and stared at the redhead with a condescending look. "A secretary who, by the way, denied me access to speaking with you, Tony. Did you know that? I wonder how many other important people have been denied a chance to meet with you."

"I didn't deny you access, Mr. Richards," Pepper interjected with a smile. "You're aware of the procedure our company has established to meet with Tony and you refused to follow through with it. I assume you're smart enough to determine that you are yet to speak with him until you first meet with me. Whenever you're ready to set up an appointment I'll be more than happy to put you in the books."

"I wasn't talking to you, Miss Potts."

"Then why are you looking at me?" She responded without the slightest hint of how nervous she truly felt, and Tony could not help the half-smile that graced his face that was immediately replicated on the features of some of the other board members who did not mind Pepper's presence in the room. "Besides, Stark Solutions business is my business, Mr. Richards. From now on, expect a response from me if you're referring to Stark Solutions even if you're not directly addressing me."

Mitch narrowed his eyes at her but did not respond. The awkward moment was then broken by another board member who had a question that was not related to Pepper's presence in the room even though he was not in agreement with her hiring. "Miss Potts, do you mind explaining to us the workings of the Stark Bike?"

"Is there a particular question you have in mind?" The ginger asked. "No," the man said, his true objective obviously being measuring how much truth there was to Tony's statements that the ginger was smarter than she seemed. "I'm just surprised this is the first we hear about this invention even though rumors of its creation have been circling the tower for days."

"Actually," Pepper said and tapped on her tablet. "I sent out a memo last week and the preliminary schematics yesterday after we got an all-clear from the patent office. Didn't your assistant make you aware of this? I received the electronic confirmation that she had relayed the information to you."

"Uh, she…I…" the man cleared his voice, adjusted his suit and looked away. "Nevermind."

"Anyone else?" Pepper asked, now highly aware of what was happening in the room. Tony had warned her that half of the board members were upset with her joining Stark Solutions, but she had not expected a group of billionaires to act like children simply because she was now around. "Or maybe I can set up an appointment to explain the schematics on a one-on-one basis."

The half of the board members that were thrilled to have Pepper join them had to bite the insides of their mouths not to laugh at the other half that were fuming about Pepper's sharp tongue. When no one else seemed to have any more questions, Howard took over the lead of the meeting again. "Anyway, we also need to vote on whether we are going to acquire any other companies this year. Our legal group, as well as our mergers and acquisitions advisors, wants to know if they should start searching the list of available companies that might be interested in joining Stark International."

"I don't think we need to consider any more acquisitions this year," Diane offered. "I think it's best if we just focus on providing Stark Solutions with whatever they need to keep our profits the way they are now."

"I agree," Ernest Jackson said. "Let's wait to see how the market is affected by Tony's inventions and we'll see by this time next year if there are any other companies worth acquiring."

"I second that motion," Charles Price said. "And I also move to have this be the quickest board meeting we've ever had."

"I second that," Mr. Hutchinson said.

"Any opposed?" Howard asked and when no one complained, the meeting was adjourned. Howard, Tony and Pepper waited until the holographic projections disappeared before they stood up from the chairs. Howard joined the two teens on their end of the table and soon father and son began laughing aloud. Pepper shook her head, held the tablet between her crossed arms and her chest and tried not to join in the laughter at her partial expense, but in the end she could not help the small chuckle that escaped her lips.

"Pepper, I oughta bring you with me more often," Tony surrounded her shoulders from behind, locking her arms under his embrace. "This has to be a company record, don't you think, Dad?"

"Yes! I think we should start a count of how fast Pepper can put them in their place. We can even start a company betting pool!"

"Oh, come on! Leave me alone," Pepper pouted. "What was I supposed to do? Let them insult me, Tony or the company?"

"No, Pep. That's not what we're saying," he rocked her left and right in his arms as he spoke. "It's just amusing how they thought they could actually outsmart you."

"I just got lucky. I need to study more."

"If you keep it up, Pepper," Howard began as he walked over to the door, "you might end up outsmarting me and Tony, too."

"Is that a challenge?" she asked with a smile from her position still being restricted by Tony's arms.

"A premonition," Howard answered before he left the meeting room.

Tony finally removed his arms from Pepper and twirled her around in place a couple of times before pulling her closer to his chest as if they were about to dance. "All jokes aside, you did amazing, Miss Potts."

"If I'd known before that cutting short one of these boring meetings was what it took for you to smile more often, I'd have done it sooner."

"It's not the meeting that's got me smiling, Pepper."

Pepper looked down at the small space between them and swallowed hard. Being Tony's assistant and co-worker was turning out to be more than she had bargained for. How could she hope to be with him like this and not eventually make a mistake by telling him she really liked him? Loved him? If she wanted to ever be able to keep her job, her sanity and her friendship with the inventor, she would have to learn to deflect his charming moves.

_ He likes Maya Hansen. He's dating Maya Hansen. Whatever we had is gone. Let him be happy. Let him be happy without me. He will never be happy with me._

With new determination and after taking in a few breaths to calm her nerves, she finally looked up at him again and cupped his face in her hands. Tony closed his eyes at sensing her touch and even went as far as leaning his face closer to hers. Pepper had to bite down on her tongue to keep herself in check, and in an unexpected turn of events decided to use his own weapon against him by moving her lips to his left ear and whispering to him. "You're such a flirt, Mr. Stark."

She felt the shiver than ran down Tony's neck and smiled. She then pulled back and plastered the most noncommittal face she could muster as she playfully slapped his left cheek with her right hand a couple of times. "Next time, try using it on someone who's not immune to it."

She finished her move with a wink and then walked out of the office, leaving a stunned scientist wondering what had just happened and wanting more.

xxxXXXxxx

Josh was scheduled to visit Pepper at her apartment three times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. His Wednesday visit had just ended and currently the teens watched the 8 o'clock news. Pepper sat upright on one end of the couch and Tony rested across the same couch, his head resting on her lap. His right arm hugged her legs and her left hand scratched his scalp. Her right arm rested across the back of the couch and his left arm was bent under her legs and his shoulder.

_"And nothing has been resolved in the mysterious disappearance of Glenda Barnes, and while their families assure the authorities she was kidnapped, the evidence points to a simple runaway case. In other news, Hammer Multinational was once the largest weapons manufacturer_ _after Stark International closed their weapons division. Today, however, the once proud company is close to shutting down. Recent reports of the company's profits show that unless a miracle occurs by the end of the year, Sasha Hammer will be left with no choice but to sell the company her family built for years. This could be a game changer for other smaller weapons manufacturers, especially if any of them acquires the rights to the rumored Project Titanium."_

"What's that?" Pepper asked when she heard Tony groan and saw him close his eyes. She did not immediately remember seeing any project with such a name in the files Tony had provided her of Hammer's company but it was clear by Tony's sudden change in demeanor that it was something important. "What's Project Titanium?"

"It's a very powerful weapon," he finally opened his eyes and shifted his body so that he now faced the ceiling, his hands now locked together over his stomach. "It's caused a lot of damage to a lot of people. No one should have the rights to it. It should be destroyed."

"Is it worse than the Iron Monger?" She continued massaging his scalp.

"No, but close enough."

"Hn," Pepper uttered and continued watching the news.

_"Other weapons that would be up for grabs would be the Mandroids that S.H.I.E.L.D. uses on a daily basis, as well as many nanotechnology projects that have never been completed due to lack of funds. Whoever gets a hold of the patents for any of the high-caliber weapons Justin Hammer created over the years could become the next face of warfare technology business."_

"And the next manufacturer of evil," Tony mumbled with disdain.

Pepper eyed his frustrated face for a moment and frowned, wishing there was something she could do to make him feel better. The two teens had spent hours talking about how his father had raised him under the belief that weapons never solved problems but only produced more, and Pepper had quickly learned that the blue-eyed boy was strongly against using technology for destruction rather than creation.

_"Justin Hammer's health condition has not improved and it appears he will never recover. We will continue to report on the apparently inevitable undoing of Hammer Multinational next week."_

The newscast ended and it cut to commercials, leaving them stewing in their own thoughts until Tony groaned even louder than before and stood up. He began pacing back and forth in front of the television while Pepper eyed him with concern.

"I never stopped to think what would happen to Hammer's weapons after he was gone and now it's too late."

"There's no way you could've known," Pepper reasoned, her eyes following his every move.

"Well, I should've known!" He spat. "I should've done something more. I should've made sure his weapons were out of reach!"

"By doing what, Tony?" She shrugged. "Blow up his building?"

"Of course not! It's just…" he sighed. "I had the chance to do something and I didn't. I should've done something – anything, to prevent this from happening. Now any chump with money to spare can get a hold of his weapons and do who-knows-what with them."

"Tony," Pepper began and stood up from the couch, walked over to the upset inventor, and placed her hands on his upper arms to stop him from pacing. "It's not as if you had a say in what happened to his company or him. If anything, it's Iron Man's fault this happened and not yours."

Tony's head jerked back. "What do you mean?"

"I looked up the reason why Justin Hammer is out of commission and even though the news said Iron Man had nothing to do with it, he was there and he didn't stop it. Just another reason I dislike the guy; he's as useful as sprinkling lemon on an open wound."

"You think this is Iron Man's fault?"

"Partially," she admitted. "I have no doubt the guy's well intentioned, but based on what you've told me he's done, he's lousy when it comes to foreseeing the consequences of his actions. He goes about it all wrong, as if he just rushes into action with no real plan and just pulls it out of his ass as he goes."

Tony gulped. "Is that what you think about him?"

"Yeah, I just hope he doesn't have family to get hurt by his lack of common sense. I'd be pissed with him if I was related to him and ended up in a pickle because of his boldness."

Tony had nothing to say to that so he just nodded along and returned to the couch, a pensive look on his face. Pepper followed him, sat to his left and turned off the television, not feeling up to watching _Breakdancing with Celebrities_ tonight. It was getting late and they soon had to go to bed if they wanted to be up tomorrow to go to work, but Pepper knew Tony was too riled up by the news of Hammer Multinational to have a good night's sleep or even feel tired at all.

On the other hand, Tony's mind was replaying Pepper's words regarding Iron Man. He had planned on telling Pepper about he and War Machine this weekend by taking her to see the Makluan Temple but now those plans were shot. Telling Pepper about Iron Man also meant telling her about Rescue, and Whitney and the mask and everything that happened to her, which included telling her how he had walked out on her when she needed him the most.

"_Just another reason I dislike the guy; he's as useful as sprinkling lemon on an open wound."_

He knew he was lucky that his missions – as scarce as they had been – had only happened at night so far when she was fast asleep. However, he knew that sooner or later there would be that call, a Godforsaken emergency that would call for his help in plain daylight and he would have to come clean with her. She practically ran his life by now, and it would not escape her watchful eye if he disappeared while at work or in the afternoon. Regardless of the great possibility that she would probably walk out the door after finding out his biggest secret, he had to tell her sooner or later.

Pepper continued to stare at him and his defeated posture and misconstrued it for even further sulking regarding Hammer's situation. She wished she could remember everything right here and now, if only to come up with a solution to his current conundrum. She hated seeing him look so overpowered; so crushed by the weight of his own need to help out and solve the problems of the world before his own. The sight of the great Tony Stark being reduced to a frail child was unbearable for her.

She bit her right thumbnail and picked up her electronic tablet, eyeing the notes she took during the board meeting and Tony's logs of Hammer Multinational. She momentarily forgot Tony was still sitting next to her as she grabbed a better hold of the tablet and her pod with both hands. She skimmed over pages and pages of information, looking for the one piece of data that would set her mind in motion and when she finally found it she placed a comforting hand over his right leg and grinned. "I have an idea."

"What?" Her voice snapped Tony from his thoughts but he was not sure he understood what she had just said. "What was that?"

"I have an idea to keep Hammer Multinational's weapons from falling into the wrong hands."

Tony's face showed he was intrigued and for a moment he forgot his other problems. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, it's a long shot and I haven't checked the books with the accounting team, but I think we should buy Hammer Multinational."

"What? I mean, I'm sure we could afford it, but…why?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" Pepper rolled her eyes. "Think about it, Tony. You said that whoever buys Hammer will inherit the rights and patents to the weapons, right? Well, why don't we get a hold of them and then make sure they are either put to good use by modifying them or destroying them forever?"

He eyed her beaming face for a second before he looked away and truly considered her idea. The solution was so simple he could not believe why it had not come to him first. Then again, a simple idea in theory did not mean it was also going to be simple in execution. "What if someone else buys it before we do?"

"Who?" She snorted. "No one can outbid you."

"Stark International could. The board, they could take it and try to reopen the weapons division using Hammer tech. My dad would definitely oppose it, but what if they try to fire him just like they did to Obadiah?"

"Good luck with that!" She giggled, not at all worried about Tony's fears. "Besides, I checked the bylaws and today's vote forbids them from buying any other company until next year. They practically shot themselves in the foot. They can't buy Hammer Multinational even if they wanted it and could afford to outbid Stark Solutions."

"And," Tony began, finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. "If they tried to pull some random loophole to stop us from buying it…"

"We can always walk away from Stark International," Pepper completed his thought. "And they won't let us. They love their money way too much for it to be clinically sane."

"Alright, Pepper!" Tony said and stood up from the couch, taking the girl with him, lifting her off the ground by her waist and pressing her against his chest. "This is the best idea ever!"

"Oh, please," she smiled as he carefully returned her feet to the floor. "You only say that because it's true," she added without shame.

Tony laughed aloud, pulled her in for a hug and kissed the side of her face. "This is going to be great, Pepper, and I want you as part of it."

"Well, of course I will be part of it. I'll meet with legal and accounting tomorrow. I'll have them issue contracts for you to sign. We can have an offer ready as soon as next week."

"No, Pepper," he said and then pulled back slightly so that he could stare at her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I want your name to be on the contracts, too."

"Tony, don't be ridiculous. I know I'm earning a lot of money by working with you but I don't think I can afford to buy Hammer Multinational. I'd have to be as rich as you!"

"Or have co-ownership of Stark Solutions."

"Or that," she conceded with slight shock. "But that would be stupid of you."

"Why?"

"Because Stark Solutions is your baby. You're so proud of what you've accomplished and you should be, but it's your brains and your brains alone that made it what it is today."

"That's not entirely true. You and Rhodey…"

"We were your backup singers. The spotlight was always on you."

"But, Pepper…"

"No buts, Stark. I'm not taking part of your company. I'm happy just working there. Besides, if you end up marrying Maya, she'll probably want to inherit all of the company and not just part of it."

"Well," he swallowed hard. "What if I married you?"

The ginger's eyes widened like saucers. Her mouth suddenly went dry and she became painfully aware that she probably looked as shocked as she felt. She tried focusing on the objectivity of the situation but the more she thought about it, the more logic escaped her mind. "Then…" she began but nothing came to mind the moment she made the mistake of staring into his eyes. "Then…"

"Then, what, Pep?" He insisted.

"Well, I…I'd -"

Whatever she was about say was interrupted by the sound of Pepper's pod going off. Her eyes landed on the device for a moment before she returned her gaze to Tony, his eyes pleading her not to take the call and she almost complied with his silent request. Yet, when the memories of his angry and pained form returned to her and she remembered she had already hurt him once before she shook her head of the silly thoughts of them being together again. "I better get that."

"Pepper, wait…"

"Hello?" The redhead said immediately after answering the call. "No, he's here. One second."

Tony grabbed the pod and placed it to his ear, his eyes never leaving her retreating form until she disappeared into the hall that led to her room. He remained silent until he heard the door open and close and it was not until then that he dared to say anything again. "This is Tony."

_"Hey, Tony, it's Maya. Why is Pepper answering your phone?"_

"It's protocol," Tony replied as he shut his eyes and hung his head before heading out to the balcony to take the rest of the call.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm seriously going to stop giving timelines of when I'll post because I'm not following my own schedule XD I guess I'll just post based on the interest of the peeps who review. How does that sound? BTW, I know there's only 8 board members for SI but I needed 10, so let's just say that Howard allowed 2 more. Don't forget to review, it keeps the creative juices flowing! Preview for those who ask!


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Holy turning pages, Batman, it's a new chapter!

YUP! Another one, back-to-back, because your reviews showed me you wanted it! How much do you want the next? ;)

ENJOY!

* * *

**Chapter 8**

Pepper Potts hardly ever dressed up in fancy clothes and today was no exception, but she did dress a tad bit more formal than usual. She was wearing dark brown skinny jeans, a tucked-in blue dress shirt and a light brown blazer. The look was complemented by blue flats and a matching headband she tied under her head, below her long hair. Across her chest she carried a brown bag in which she carried some important documents she was to deliver today.

Even Tony had made a comment about how she should dress like this more often, adding that it would probably bring in more clients to the office if only to stare at her, and she had rewarded him with a playful punch to his shoulder. It was all she could do to keep the smile from creeping up her face and the blush off her cheeks.

"Miss Potts?" The same receptionist that had led her to the spot where she currently sat in called to her. "Ms. Hammer will see you now."

"Alright," Pepper said and stood up to follow the woman to the entrance of the CEO's office. She waited patiently as the woman announced the arrival of the representative from Stark Solutions and in the blink of an eye she found herself locked inside the office with the older woman. Pepper had run a background check on Sasha Hammer before she had arranged this meeting between them, and had spent days preparing a successful strategy for her. Every word spoken today would count more than ever, and any wrong move on her part would mean ruining the chance to take a weight off Tony's shoulders.

Sasha eyed the girl up and down for a moment but did not offer her to sit down; she had no intention to make the ginger's stay pleasant, even if the younger woman had never personally made a threat to the white-haired girl. "When they said someone from Stark Solutions wanted to meet with me, I thought they meant Tony Stark."

Pepper smirked, walked closer to the desk and placed the bag on one of the chairs. "A lot of people do, but they soon learn what you're about to find out."

"And what is that?" Sasha asked, her fingernails tapping her mahogany desk.

"That Tony's too busy to waste his time with people like you."

If Sasha's unneeded sunglasses had not been on, Pepper would have seen the glare that she was currently directing at the redhead. "I take it then that _you_ have time to waste?"

"Only a tad; at least more than Tony does," Pepper responded as she began walking around the office to stare at the décor, hands laced behind her back. "Or at least enough to know that your company's in trouble."

Sasha smirked. The reason for Pepper's visit was becoming clear to her. Offers to buy the company had been pouring in like crazy, but the last offer she thought she would ever receive would be from Tony's three-people start-up. "Oh. It is all over the news; no surprise there."

Pepper shrugged and moved from one wall to the opposite one, staring at pictures of Hammer's possessions and ridiculously expensive wall art whose value could feed and clothe an entire village in Africa for years to come. "You'd think that we would've found out by the news but we actually found out by accident," she lied with an incredible ability. "Tony and I have been busy making a lot of people rich; ourselves included, of course."

"So I've heard. The Stark Bike is quite the highlight of the year for many people around here, even if the item is a creation of our main competitor."

"Oh, Sasha," Pepper waved a dismissive hand toward the woman. "You haven't been our main competitor in a looong time. You'd think that by now you'd realize that to be a competitor of anyone you'd first have to make stuff that actually works."

"I see Stark's arrogance has rubbed off on you," Sasha deadpanned. "Is that a side-effect of sharing bed sheets with him at night?" She cocked her head to the side.

"It's too hot to use bed sheets in the summer," Pepper replied, completely unfazed by Sasha's implication and having expected it since she had walked through the door. Ever since last week's board meeting where Tony had announced Pepper was his sole point of contact and no one would see him unless they first went through her, appointments had been taking up every minute of her work time; even Mitch had sat in a room with the redhead for half an hour only to be told his inquiry was not deemed Tony Stark-worthy.

That alone had been the highlight of Tony's start of the week.

Regardless of who had met with her, almost every single one of the potential business partners or clients that had spoken with her so far had all used similar lines to get a rise out of the ginger. By this point, Pepper was immune to their sad attempts at breaking her, and while she had immediately denied any romantic involvement between her and the inventor to anyone before, letting Sasha think that Pepper had some advantage over her was part of her plan to get her to agree to sell the company to Stark Solutions. "Besides, our balcony has a much better view."

"Kinky, aren't we? How long do you think that'll keep you at the top of the food chain?"

"I'm not sure," Pepper began and returned to stand in front of Sasha's desk. "But I figure that as long as I'm on top at night, he'll have no issue letting me take the lead."

"Confident, aren't we?"

"Have every right to be."

Sasha exhaled in annoyance and finally offered Pepper a seat with a sweep of her hand, but the ginger politely declined. "My business here is quick. I have no time to waste."

"Very well," Sasha responded and took off her glasses to reveal a tired face Pepper had to control herself to react to. "What's your offer?"

Pepper shifted to the side to where her bag lay and took out the forms she needed before sliding them over the desk to Sasha's side. The woman eyed the documents but did not touch them and then covered her eyes with her glasses again. "Declined."

Pepper scoffed. "You haven't even read the terms."

"I don't need to," Sasha said. "I know Stark Solutions can do much better than that."

"Oh, of course we can! But we just don't want to. We don't need to. We know you have no choice but to take whatever scraps we give you."

Sasha smirked, trying to call Pepper's bluff. "What makes you think I'll sell the company for such a low ball offer?"

"What makes you think your company is worth more than that?" Pepper retorted. "I know for a fact that even if all the offers you've already been given decided to give you some charity and all combined together, they are not a fourth of what we're offering you today."

Sasha pursed her lips; the rumors that the girl was good at research were turning out to be true. "Double your offer."

"This is not a negotiation, Sasha. It's an acquisition."

"Double or nothing."

Pepper rolled her eyes and sighed. "I guess nothing," she replied and leaned over to grab the papers but Sasha stopped her by placing her hand on top of the folder that held the offer. Pepper raised a single eyebrow at the woman and then took a step back.

"Double," Sasha insisted.

"Are you listening to me?" Pepper began. "I have a 3 o'clock I need to tend to, and since you've obviously declined, I have to go."

"Double," Sasha said again, louder this time when she saw Pepper grab her bag and place it across her chest as she was readying to leave the office. "You don't know what's gonna happen if you walk out that door without my signature on these papers."

Pepper smirked. "Actually, I do. I'll walk out and leave. I'll go to Tony and tell him what happened; tell him that you want double the money. About thirty seconds later, after he gets done laughing, he'll then write a contract for _half_ of what's on that paper right now, wait a month for your situation to get even more desperate, then send it to you via snail mail and you'll sign it anyway."

The scowl on Sasha's face was evident as she sorted through the papers to find the preliminary acceptance of the offer. She skimmed through the small details of the contracts, and with a sigh and a long string of curse words she signed and dated the dotted line. A second later an ink pad was placed in front of her and the woman wasted no time pressing her right thumb on it and then imprinting its curves on the paper she had just signed.

Pepper took back the ink pad and put it away inside her bag and then grabbed the paper Sasha was handing her. The redhead made sure everything was in place and gave the woman a wide smile while she slid the paper inside her bag and patted the outside of it in a triumphant manner. "I'm glad you still have some sense, Ms. Hammer. You've made the right choice."

"I'll have my attorneys review the offer and send you the notarized papers tomorrow. Give me a call when Stark finalizes it and the money is wired."

"I'll call you Thursday."

"No. Tony and tomorrow."

"No can do. I make Tony's calls and tomorrow is my birthday. I'll call you Thursday."

"Fine," Sasha said and closed the folder of the offer. "I guess you two will be too busy banging each other to give me a call."

Pepper grinned. "We probably will, and I'd invite you to join us if I didn't already know Tony doesn't like threesomes."

"You enjoy your time at the top, girl. One day it will all come crashing down on you when you least expect it."

"Like it did for you?" Pepper asked and began walking toward the door.

"Yes," Sasha admitted. "Like it did for me."

"Enjoy your retirement, Ms. Hammer," Pepper said and waved at the woman. "I'll sure enjoy mine."

The last sound in the eerie quiet office was of the closing door.

xxxXXXxxx

"Holy shit, Pep! I can't believe you got her to sign!" Tony held the paper in his hands as he twirled around in a rolling chair. "I really thought she was going to throw you out of her office the moment you walked in."

"If you had gone by yourself or we had gone together, she would've done just that, no doubt," Pepper replied and snatched the paper from his hands as she walked past him to store the paper in a secure location. "But it's different between girls and your charm would've only made her mad. You should've seen her, Tony. She looked so tired and old, I couldn't believe she's not even ten years my senior."

"Good thing it was you who went, then," he agreed and followed her every move around their office with his eyes. "Although, I wish you would go with me today to the board meeting. They are going to flip out when I tell them what happened today. Are you sure you don't want to see the look on Mitch's face? I bet you it's gonna be priceless!"

"I'd rather not end the day being screamed at again. Once a month is enough for me," Pepper said and then returned to her desk. "It's the last thing I'd want the same day after meeting with Sasha Hammer and before my off day. Is Rhodey down for tomorrow?"

"Yup," the inventor smiled. "He said he wouldn't miss your birthday surprise for the world."

"What is the surprise, anyway?" Pepper asked and eyed him suspiciously. "For the life of me I can't find anything in the logs to implicate you."

"It's a surprise, Pepper. And give up already; you're not going to find anything here or at home, probably not even at Rhodey's."

"Boo," she responded and returned her attention to her laptop to begin wrapping up for the day. Tomorrow both she and Tony would take the day off for her birthday, opting to pick up Rhodey at his house and spend the day together. Unfortunately, neither young man had spilled the beans about what their plans were going to be and as Tony had just confirmed, there was no way she would be able to find out beforehand by this point.

Tony eyed Pepper from the corner of his eye as he stood up from the chair and pretended to be busy with the VR Designer. Needless to say he was worried about tomorrow for many reasons, the main one being the fact that Tony's big birthday surprise was to take Pepper to the Makluan Temple and reveal to her that he was Iron Man and that Rhodey was War Machine. He also planned on telling her about Rescue and Gene, but how much detail he could go into would depend on whether or not Pepper passed out in surprise.

"Hey, Pepper?" He asked after a long silence.

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to hear part of your surprise?" He asked with a tentative voice and when she stopped typing and looked up to stare at him, he knew he had her attention. "I'm going to tell you everything."

It took her a split second to understand the meaning of his words, and when she smiled brightly to the point that even her eyes danced, Tony knew he had made the right decision. "You…you promise?"

"Yes."

"No more secrets?"

"No more secrets."

"Oh, Tony!" She clasped her hands on her chest. "That would be the best!"

"It will be but no peeking, alright?" He warned her. "Don't spoil the surprise."

"OK! I get it! I'll stop searching," she stood up and ran to him with extended arms. Tony immediately responded to the gesture and surrounded her with his arms. "You're serious about it this time, right?"

"When have I not been serious about it?"

"Well, you haven't told me much in a few weeks. Only stuff you had to tell me because I remembered a little bit or because I needed to know for work."

"Oh, yeah, well…we've been busy, right? I know you've kept your end of the deal, so now it's time to keep mine…even more."

Pepper smiled but did not say anything. Tony did not have to know she had kinda of broken her end of the deal by looking up the information about Harold "Happy" Hogan last weekend. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her. Either way it was a good thing she had, too. It would have been extremely awkward to start college in a couple of weeks and run into her future college peer at ESU and not know who he was – or remember the important fact that she and Happy had dated in high school.

Although, after seeing his school records and biography, she had no idea how in the world she had become interested in a jock in the first place; it just did not seem like her type – not that a genius kid did either, mind you. No wonder she had broken it off. "Your board meeting's going to start soon," she said and took a step back, breaking the hug and unwrinkled his shirt with her palms and straightened out his collar with her hands. "I'm going to get your reports and see you off."

"Oh, come on, Pep! You don't have to baby me! I'm the adult here, remember?" He teased her as he watched her go inside his private office and closed the door behind her. The walls and door were made of glass and through them he could see her make an exaggerated gesture with her hands that stated she could not hear him, and although the walls in his office were somewhat sound-proofed, he knew she had heard him mock her before the door had closed.

"Take your time, I'm in no hurry," he told her but she shrugged and turned around to begin collecting and organizing the papers Tony had scattered throughout the office.

_He says he's the adult but he can't clean after himself_, Pepper thought as she found papers even under the desk on the floor. _Or, it's probably because he knows you're going to clean after him_, the voice in her mind told her and she frowned.

_Or maybe he just pretends he can't so that I stay around_, she thought with hope but then shook her head._ I need to stop thinking like that. It doesn't do anyone any good._

When she finally had all the papers in order and inside the folder she stood up from the floor, looked up to stare outside the office and her heart dropped.

At some point during her task, Maya Hansen had walked inside the office and was currently locking lips with Tony Stark in the middle of the room. Pepper looked down at the floor and swallowed hard. She then took in a deep breath and cleared her throat, and when she felt composed enough she walked out and cleared her throat again.

"Sorry," she said in a truly apologetically voice when the couple pulled away from each other. Had she not been trying to avoid their stares she would have seen the look of guilt that momentarily befell the inventor. "I…here are the reports," she waved the folder in her hand and left it on her desk, not daring to get near them.

"Sorry, Pepper," Maya said and meant it. "I just…I haven't seen him since our date and I…sorry…"

"It's alright," Pepper smiled as best as she could. "It's kinda my fault. I've been keeping him busy."

"No, it's OK," Maya began and then walked away from Tony to reach Pepper's desk. "I understand; that's just how it is at work. My dad's been busy, too. Besides, tomorrow's your birthday and you get him all to yourself, but after that, could you please make some room for me?" The brunette gave her a pleading face. "Please?"

Pepper nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry. I will." The redhead assured her and Pepper had every intention of making good on her promise to the brunette. She knew any other girl dating Tony would have probably seen her as competition – an obstacle to be crushed immediately and indefinitely, but Maya had been nothing but understanding and kind to the ginger.

Meanwhile, Tony was yet to say anything or even move; his eyes were studying the interactions of the two women in his life with keen interest. Even though he had yet to see or hear Maya talk down or bad about Pepper, he was not yet completely trusting of Pepper's safety around Maya. It appeared his experience with Whitney had forever made him be on his toes regarding how his other female friends or dates would respond to the ginger, and he now wondered if his and Pepper's fate would have been different had Whitney and the redhead been friends despite their common interest in him. _I'll never know._

"Hey, what's this?" Maya asked with a playful smile and pointed to Tony's outside work desk.

Pepper followed the path her finger was pointing at and then frowned with curiosity. "What is that?"

Maya giggled and walked over to the wrapped box, picked it up and wiggled it in her hands. "Oh! It looks like someone's got an early birthday gift!"

"Oh, my gosh! Are you serious?" Pepper walked over to Maya and carefully grabbed the box from her hands. She immediately unfolded the card and saw that it was something from the girl herself and she could not help to give her a hug. "Thank you, Maya!"

"It's nothing," the woman replied and then broke the embrace after a hard squeeze. "Open it, open it!"

"Is it…uhm…guy-friendly?" Pepper had to ask after receiving another early birthday present this morning from Trish – Howard's assistant – and it had turned out to be a black, silk nightie she had opened in front of Tony's surprised face. "Or should we kick out Tony from the office?"

"Hey! This is my office," Tony said even if just to have something to say after the awkward moment. "If anything, you two should be the ones kicked out!"

"Oh, shut up!" Maya rolled her eyes. "Man, he _does_ get grumpy right before going to a board meeting. How do you deal with him every day?" she asked the redhead and Pepper nodded.

"You've got no idea! It's like dealing with a child!"

"HEY!"

"Quiet!" Pepper joined in the fun before looking down at her gift. "So, can I open it now?"

"Yes!" Maya said and in an instant both girls were giggling by Pepper's desk as the redhead tore apart the wrapping. A moment later, Pepper squealed when she took out from the box a bath robe and inside one of its bags she found a gift certificate for a full-day spa. "Ooh! This is awesome!"

"What's awesome?" Tony asked and walked over to the commotion. Maya surrounded his left arm with both of hers and Tony had to fight the urge to pull away. "What did you get her?"

"Spa tickets and this!" Pepper extended the plush bathrobe for Tony to see.

"Spa tickets? What for?"

"To take a weekend off from changing your diapers, Stark!" Maya spat and pulled him closer to her. "So you better be a good boss and cut her some slack. What the hell would you do without her reminding you to eat?"

"I'd be ten pounds thinner?" Tony offered with a shrug, earning him a glare from both girls. "Or not. Wow, it's like walking on eggshells with you two in the same room."

"And don't you forget it," Maya said and pulled in Tony to kiss him on the lips but at the last second Tony moved his face so that she only got his cheek.

"Thank you so much, Maya," Pepper said and hugged the girl again once she let go of Tony's arm. "You didn't have to, but I'm thankful you did. I love it."

"Oh, don't read too much into it," Maya winked. "It's purely self-serving. I've got to keep you happy or Tony will stop dating me," Maya said, partially joking and partially being honest.

"What?" Tony was taken aback and Pepper rolled her eyes, understanding what Maya had meant and taking no offense by it. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Pepper said and placed her gifts inside the box. "It's been great but I have to go. Jarvis will be here any minute to take me back home."

"Already?" Tony asked and looked down at his watch. "Damn, you're right. I'm late for the meeting."

"Don't forget your reports," Pepper said and Maya made sure to slam the folder onto Tony's chest for the redhead's sake.

"Yeah, yeah," Tony said and grabbed the folder. "See you later, Pepper."

"Bye, Tony. Bye, Maya!"

"Bye, Pepper!" Maya said and waved Pepper off. Once the office was clear of the redhead, Tony narrowed his eyes at the brunette and she shrugged in response. "What?"

"Are you now going to tell me what you meant by me not dating you if Pepper wasn't happy?"

"Really? Are you _that_ clueless?"

"About what?"

"You ARE clueless," Maya said and briefly pinched the bridge of her nose with her left index finger and thumb. "First, it's not just me. It's any girl you ever date. And, second: there's nothing wrong with it. I can tell Pepper's important to you and as such her opinion must be important, too. Or, am I wrong?"

"No," Tony replied with a frown. "Pepper is very important to me, as is Rhodey. They're my best friends."

"Right, but Rhodey's opinion of me wouldn't matter to you because he's a guy. Pepper's, on the other hand, could very well end our relationship in an instant."

"Are you telling me that you're just pretending to like Pepper so that I date you?"

"What, no! I actually like Pepper, a lot. She's fun and easy going and a saint for putting up with you for so many years. But I'm not stupid and I'm aware of my place in the food chain. It's…it's like an unwritten rule: the girl best friend of the guy has dibs on choosing who the guy dates."

Tony's frown deepened. This conversation was too familiar for his taste, particularly the part about the _food chain_ and _unwritten rules_. The last thing he needed was a reminder of one of his many mistakes of the past. "I guess so."

"There's nothing wrong with it, Tony. It's like when you try to get a girl's parents to like you. Only this time it's a girl trying to get your friend to like me," she began and pulled Tony in for a hug. "I like you, Tony, a lot. And I think you like me enough, too. And I'll do anything in my power to make sure this works between us."

"Anything?" Tony asked, a memory of the lengths Whitney had gone through to get even with him clouded his mind. "Even get Pepper out of the picture?"

Maya frowned. "I'm not Whitney Stane, Tony. I'm not hurting Pepper, if that's what you're implying."

Tony's face turned somber and he pulled back from the embrace as if it had scalded him. "Just making sure. Because if you do try to hurt Pepper, I _will_ hurt you back."

"I'm well aware of that," she replied, all giddiness drained from her face.

"Good," he responded and then took a step back. "I have to go, too," he finally said and began ushering her to the door. "Thanks for Pepper's gift. She's never had girlfriends before."

"And while you're in the picture, she probably never will," the brunette added before she turned on her heels and walked down the hall, putting as much distance between her and the inventor as she could.

xxxXXXxxx

Her eyes snapped open and she immediately directed them to her alarm clock to see she had woken up way too early for her birthday celebration – two hours early, at least. She could not help it though as today she turned eighteen and everything was going great for her – well, almost everything.

The scene of Maya and Tony kissing in the office had depressed her for the rest of the day, and she had gone as far as pretending to be fast asleep by the time Tony returned home from the board meeting. She knew she had no right to be upset by it but she could not help the pain in her heart. If only she could go back in time to prevent whatever she had done to destroy her relationship with Tony. If only she could remember what she had done in the first place.

Knowing there was no way she could go back to sleep now she sprung off the bed and walked over to the bathroom to wash up. She did not have to get ready for at least an hour so she just concentrated on brushing her teeth and cleaning up her face. Once she finished, she ran a brush through her hair a few times and then exited the bathroom and her bedroom with the intention of going to the living room and watching TV until sunrise.

Her plans were thwarted, however, when she saw the lump that was Tony Stark at the dining table. The left side of his face was resting against the cold surface and had he not been moaning, she would have thought him to be passed out. "Tony?"

His only response was an even louder moan.

"Tony, what's wrong?" The ginger asked and walked over to him. She placed her hand on his forehead and quickly pulled back. "What the hell?"

He was burning up.

"Tony? Tony, wake up!"

"Pepper?" he said and tried to rearrange his position on the table but failed. "I'm…I'm alright…I…your birthday…today's your birthday…"

Pepper bit her lip. "No, Tony," she lied. "It's tomorrow. Tomorrow's my birthday."

"Are…are you sure?" He asked and opened one eye to stare at her.

"Yes, I'm sure," she smiled confidently and patted his back. "Who would know my birthday better than me, right?" She asked him and kneeled down near him. "What happened? How long have you been up?"

"Uhm," he tried to swallow so he could answer but his throat was so dry and swollen it hurt and he coughed. "I don't know. Am I up or am I dreaming?"

"Oh, brother," Pepper whispered. "Stay right here, alright. I'll be right back."

"OK, babe."

_Yup, he's out of it._ Pepper ran back to her room and grabbed her pod. She dialed Rhodey's number and after three full rings, a groggy-sounding man answered the call. _"Da'hell, Pepper? It's four in the morning…"_

"Yeah, I know. Listen up," Pepper said in her no nonsense voice. "Tony's sick. We're going to have to call it off."

_"What?"_ It took three seconds for Rhodey to process Pepper's words but he was almost completely awake after that. _"What happened?"_

"I don't know. I found him at the dining room, moaning and with a fever."

_"Are you serious? Is it a cold…or…what?"_

"I guess so," she said with a sigh. "It doesn't matter. We'll have to cancel today's plans. Can you do that? I mean, I don't know what he had planned but if we were going somewhere and we have to cancel…"

_"Yeah, alright. I…I'll take care of it, don't worry."_

"Thank you," she said and stared at her open door.

_"What about you? Do you need reinforcements?"_

"No. I'll be fine. Besides, with you leaving for the Air Force Academy this weekend and Tony being sick…" Pepper did not need to finish her sentence knowing Rhodey understood what she meant.

_"OK, but if you need help…"_

"I know, Rhodey. I know. Can you call his dad to let him know? Tell him not to send Jarvis over. He might get sick, too."

_"What about you?"_

"Too late for me," she joked. "Save yourself."

_"Ugh, Pepper, I'm sorry. It's…it's your birthday and all."_

"It's alright. He might be better tomorrow, right? It might just be a 24-hour virus, you know?" Pepper offered and felt the slightest hint of déjà vu when she heard her words repeat in her mind, only to associate them with the image of a panda dressed in basketball attire. How the words related to the panda she could not figure out, so she just brushed it off to being another random forgotten memory. "Anyway, it's not the end of the world. We can celebrate another day, right?"

_"Yeah, I guess so."_

"Don't worry about it, Rhodey. We'll be fine."

_"OK, alright. But I'm a phone call away."_

"Yes, I know. Thank you, Rhodey."

_"Happy Birthday, Pepper."_

"Thanks," she smiled and ended the call.

She took a moment to collect her thoughts and then placed the pod back on her nightstand. She then exited her room and entered Tony's. His bed was unmade and his bathroom lights were on, and when she walked inside the bathroom she gasped. The place was completely trashed and the contents of his medicine cabinet were scattered all over the tiled floor. The thought of Tony trying to force himself to feel better for her sake made her feel even worse about the entire situation and she sighed.

"Dammit!"

She turned on her heels and made a beeline for his bed, which she quickly rearranged to better serve the inventor she was bringing back over to it. The bathroom mess would just have to wait as her first priority was to get Tony tucked in. She returned to her room and rummaged through her closet until she found what she was looking for and was never so grateful for keeping the contraption she had hated for weeks.

"It'll be alright, Tony," she whispered as she carried the wheelchair with her back to the living room. The inventor was still where she had left him and as soon as she stood next to him, she began unfolding the chair. "How are we doing, Tony?"

"Oh, hey, you're back," he mumbled and extended his hand to touch her but his arm did not lift at all.

"Can you stand, Tony?"

"I am standing," he said even though he was not, his disorientation worrying the ginger that much more. "I missed you, Pepper. Where did you go?"

"I had to call Rhodey," she responded as she finished locking up the wheelchair in place. "He says 'hi'."

"Who says hi?"

"No one," Pepper said and shook her head. "Here, let's get you out of here."

"Where are we going?" He asked as he tried to stabilize himself when Pepper carried his weight from the chair to the wheelchair and almost fell in the process. "Are we going on a trip?"

"Yes," Pepper told him.

"Where are we going?" He asked again with a wobbly head when Pepper began pushing the wheelchair in the direction of his room.

"Bed. We're going to bed."

"Together?" He asked and tried to look back over his shoulder. "We're going to bed together?"

"Yes," she answered and maneuvered the chair into his room.

"Really? Cool," he said even though his voice was more of a slur than anything else. "I'd always wanted to sleep with you."

_He's sick_, Pepper reminded herself. _He's sick. He's sick. He's sick._

"So, uhm, Tony, why is there a mess in the bathroom?"

"Mess? What mess?"

"Your medicine cabinet is empty," she added and began pulling him up from the chair and dropped him on his bed. "Were you looking for something?"

"Oh, that!" he said and tried to snap his fingers but he could not get them to do so, and instead ended up staring at the weird shape his fingers bent into in the process. "I was looking for medicine."

"Medicine for what?" she asked him and moved his legs so that he was lying on his back on the bed. He was not wearing anything other than his pajama pants, so the fact that he had a high temperature was even more concerning to her. "What are you feeling?"

"Nothing. I'm fine now."

_I'm sure you are_, she thought to herself.

"What did you take?" She placed the blankets over him and pressed her left hand onto his forehead to confirm he did have a fever. Tony smiled at her and waved her closer to him with his hand and the redhead complied. Once she was bent down by his face, Tony lifted his head and spoke into her ear in a voice he probably thought was a whisper but was not.

"Everything."

_ Oh, shit._

"OK, Tony, we're going to play a little game," she readjusted his head on the pillow.

"Are we? What game?" He eyed her with sudden interest.

"Stay indoors and drink lots of fluids."

"That sounds boring," he complained and rolled his eyes.

"It's not. It's very fun," she assured him. "The first part of the game, though, is to tell me what you took. Now, I'm going to get all the medicine you have and you're going to point to me what you took, alright?"

"OK," Tony said but then frowned. "What do I get as a prize?"

"A, what?"

"A prize! If it's a game and I win, what's my prize?"

"Uhm," Pepper cleared her throat and looked left and right. "What do you want?"

"A kiss," he said without missing a beat. "A kiss from you."

"How about some candy?"

"No! No candy! A kiss!"

Pepper sighed and silently counted to ten. "Alright. A kiss. But you have to tell me the truth. OK?"

"Yes!"

"OK. Wait right here."

"OK."

Pepper returned to the bathroom and tidied it up as much as she could. She then grabbed all of the medicine and placed it inside a plastic bag. Seconds later she turned off the lights of the bathroom and closed the door behind her before she sat by the edge of Tony's bed. She dropped all of the contents of the bag on the empty side of the bed and Tony immediately sat up and began sorting through the medication without waiting for the redhead to tell him to do so. Pepper watched him as he made two piles of medicine; one pile had about 80% of the boxes and/or bottles, and the rest were in the second pile.

Pepper concentrated on the smaller pile and grabbed one bottle at random and frowned when she saw it was nausea medicine. "Tony, why did you take nausea pills?"

"I didn't," he said and shook his head. "I took the stuff over here," he pointed to the larger pile and Pepper's heart nearly stopped.

_Oh, my God! Please don't drop dead. Please don't drop dead!_

"Okay," she said and began inspecting the medicine he had taken. It all pointed to her that he had a cold, or at least many of its common symptoms. He had taken fever reducers, pain relievers, and cough suppressants…all of them…plenty of them…at the same time. "Tony, this is bad."

"Yes, yes it is. I still haven't gotten my kiss."

Pepper eyed him with an incredulous face but still leaned forward and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "There, now lay back down."

"What? That's it? No fair!"

"What? You asked for a kiss and I gave you one," she said and began putting away the medicine again. "Now lay down!"

"I wanted a real kiss!" He pouted. "The kind you should give your boyfriend!"

"Well," she began and walked around the bed, plastic bag in hand. "You didn't specify where you wanted it and you're not my boyfriend."

"Yes, I am! Or…I was…and…and you left me…" his head hung. "You left me for a long time…"

Pepper closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry I left you."

"It wasn't your fault," he said sheepishly and his current behavior reminded her of the first time they had met back at the hospital. "It was mine. It was my fault."

"I'm sure it wasn't your fault," she said and pressed down onto his chest to force him to lie down. "I'm sure it was both our faults."

"No," he said and held her hand in both of his. "It was mine. I was a jerk, and I was blind. I almost lost you, Pepper. You almost died."

"But I didn't," she said, pulled her hand away from his grip and then used it to brush his hair. "I didn't die and I'm here with you now. Now close your eyes and rest. I'll be right back, OK?"

"You promise?" He asked, eyes already closing.

"I promise, Tony."

The redhead waited a few seconds before she stood up from the bed and walked out of his room, leaving the door open to hear him in case he moved. She tied a knot in the plastic bag and threw the medicine inside her closet along with the wheelchair and then closed the door behind her. She walked down the hall and into the kitchen. She searched through the cabinets until she found the compression bag and filled it with ice from the freezer. She then filled a pitcher with water and grabbed a cup before taking all of the items with her back to Tony's room.

She figured Tony had passed out by now but as soon as she laid the cold compress on his head, he moaned. "That's cold."

"I know, but I need to bring down your fever."

"I have a fever?"

"Yes, you're sick, Tony."

"Really? Aw, man!" He whined and then pulled on Pepper's pajama shorts. "Are you staying with me?"

"Yes."

"All day?"

"All day," she replied with a smile before she grabbed the pitcher and the cup and filled it up with water. "I need you to drink this. Can you do that for me?"

"Whatever you want, Pepper," he said and immediately chugged down the drink. "Huh, I didn't know I was thirsty. Can I have more?"

"Yes," she said with a light chuckle and before she knew it, the pitcher was empty. "Do you want more?"

"No. No more."

"Alright. Now close your eyes and open your mouth."

Tony did as she asked as she put a thermometer in his mouth and then pushed his jaw close. She waited a moment and then took out the stick from his mouth and frowned. His temperature was high, not alarmingly so that she had to rush him to a hospital, but high nonetheless. If the fever reducers did not start kicking in soon, she would have to dunk him in a cold bath.

"Pepper?"

"Yeah?" she asked and left the thermometer on a handkerchief on his nightstand.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"Because I walked out on you when you needed me; because I fucked up. I should've stayed with you when you asked me to stay. If I had, Whitney would've not taken you away from me; she would've not hurt you and you wouldn't have forgotten about me."

_Whitney was the one that hurt me?_

Pepper pursed her lips; curiosity peeked its ugly head. She wondered if he was referring to the short flashback she had had of them arguing before on their way home from work, and while she was tempted to find out more about it, she did not want to take advantage of his current state to get the information she knew he would freely provide in his medicine high. He had promised her answers, but this was not probably what he had had in mind.

"It's alright, Tony." She patted his arm. "Already forgot about it."

"Are you sure you're not mad?"

"I'm not mad."

"Are you staying here with me, then?" He asked again.

"I'm staying here with you."

"Don't leave."

"I'm not," she said and then sighed when Tony patted the empty space next to him on the bed.

"Please?"

"Tony, I…I don't think…"

"Please?" he begged and she inwardly sighed.

"OK."

The redhead walked around the bed again and sat on the empty space next to him. She pulled her knees to her chest and before she could stop him, Tony sat up as well. "Hey, none of that. Lie down."

"No," he said to her.

"Lie down or I'll leave," she said in her most threatening-sounding voice.

"Why?"

"Because if you're not going to listen to me, then there's no point on me being here to make you feel better."

"But, I feel fine," he said despite feeling the room spinning around him.

"I'm sure you do," she mumbled under her breath and then turned around to face him, thinking of a different approach. She cupped his face in her hands and the inventor closed his eyes and exhaled in bliss. "Please lie down, Tony."

Tony opened his eyes and stared directly at hers, giving her all but two seconds to realize what he was about to do next.

He kissed her.

And she him kissed back.

Tony's mind wandered, sending him back to a time not long ago when he had been in a similar situation with the redhead, only it had not been her but someone who looked a lot like her as part of a trap he had devised. He had been waiting for the opportunity to do this with the real girl in his life, and now that the chance had presented itself, he was not going to hold back. "Pepper…" he whispered after he broke the kiss and pulled her to his lap.

"Tony, I…we…" Pepper tried to put together at least one coherent sentence but her mind was clouded by his actions. Next thing she knew she was sitting on his lap, his back against the head of the bed and their lips locked again.

"_Pepper," he whispered to her in a hungry tone and kissed the side of her neck. _

_The ginger moaned lightly in response and opened her eyes ever so slightly to look behind them to make sure they were still alone. "Did you miss me, Tony?" she whispered in his ear._

"_Yes," he responded immediately. "I missed you so much."_

"_Do you miss Whitney?"_

_Tony scoffed. "Whitney, who?" he responded before kissing her lips again and the redhead's hands flew to the edge of his shirt, pulling it off him in one swift move as she pulled away from his face._

"_I'm so happy you were able to rescue me, Tony." The redhead purred and slid her hands up and down over his chest, tracing his muscles with her fingertips._

_Tony smiled and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. "And I'm so happy you've returned to me," he said to her before he kissed her again. The redhead's hands held onto his back belt loops and pulled him closer to her. He reciprocated the gesture by tightening his grip on her hips._

"_Do you love me, Tony?" She asked after she broke the kiss._

"_Yes. I love you, Pepper; you know I do," he whispered to her, still caught in his own world, and brushed the side of his nose against her cheek. "Don't ever leave me again."_

"Tony," Pepper pulled away from his face. "We shouldn't…you're sick. You don't know what you're doing…"

"I do," he said and then trailed kisses down her neck, all inhibitions down thanks to the overdose of the medicine he had taken all night.

"You don't know even know what's going on."

"I do," he insisted and switched sides of her neck. "You're Pepper and I'm Tony and we're together, like we should be."

"Tony, stop," she said but did little to pull away from his caresses. "What about…what about Maya?"

"Who?"

"Maya! Your girlfriend!"

"You're my girlfriend, Pepper. You're my only girlfriend."

"I'm not…we're not…Tony, stop!" She finally pulled away from him and he stared back at her with wide eyes.

"You…you're still mad at me."

"No, Tony but…this is wrong. You…you're with Maya now."

"Who the hell is Maya?"

Pepper groaned and lifted herself from his lap. "You need to sleep this off."

"No, Pepper, wait," he said and watched as she straightened out her clothes. "Don't leave."

"I'm not going to, but I'm staying over here," she said and dragged his work desk's chair near the door. "We shouldn't be too close."

"Why not?" He demanded. "Don't you love me anymore?"

She stopped in her tracks and stared back at him with a shocked face, and her heart suddenly began trying to beat out of her chest. Now she was not sure if it was him or her that was dreaming and/or high on over-the-counter drugs. "If I said I did, would you remember it tomorrow?"

"Why wouldn't I remember it tomorrow?"

"Because you forgot it before?"

"When?"

"When we broke up," she ventured to say even though she was not sure how things had unraveled between them.

"That doesn't mean I stopped…" he trailed, swallowed hard and stared at her with the slightest hint of fear. "That doesn't mean I don't right now."

Pepper bit down on her lower lip. She could feel her entire body begin to shake and she was not sure if it was in anger, frustration, fear, excitement or all of the above. "But, you're with Maya."

"For the last time: I don't know any Maya's!" He spat and then began patting himself up and down. Pepper eyed him with confusion as he looked around himself until he found what he was looking for: his wallet. He opened it up to make sure his prized possession was still there and then threw it towards Pepper. The redhead caught it with no problem, and when he urged her to open it she did and gasped.

Inside his wallet, inside the only spot for photographs, was a picture of her as a baby, surrounded by her mother and father. The image confused her at first, but then inevitably brought another flashback to her.

_"Come on, let's get ready for class. You can borrow my books; I don't even need them."_

_ "I don't feel like…"_

_ "No, Pepper. Screw them! If you go home they'll know they've got to you. I'll walk you to every class, alright? They're just desperate and don't know what else to do. Besides, since when do you give up so easily, huh?"_

_ "It's not that…I don't…It's just…" Pepper turned slightly back to the locker, opened the door, and from inside the mess she pulled an almost unrecognizable piece of paper. She used the sleeve of her ruined uniform t-shirt to wipe off some of the mess from the paper. "This is the last picture I had of me, my Dad and my Mom before they got divorced. I can't replace this."_

"I fixed it for you," he said and tried to stand up from the bed but ended up falling onto the floor.

"Tony!" she ran up to him and helped him stand up.

"Why is there three of you? Which one gave me the kiss? Can I kiss the other two?!"

"Tony," she began but shook her head and put him back on the bed. "Stop moving. You're sick."

"I'm not sick," he said to one of the Pepper's before him and then sneezed. "OK, maybe I am…" he held his head in his hands, the effort of the sneeze had caused a spike of pain to go through him. "But that doesn't mean I don't know what I'm saying."

"You know what?" She asked, covered him with the blankets once more and placed the compress back on his head. "If you remember this tomorrow, we can talk about it. OK?"

"Why do you keep saying 'if'? Why would I forget about us?"

_Because I did_, she thought bitterly. "No reason."

"You're weird today, Pep," he said to her before he closed his eyes, suddenly feeling really tired. "I love it when you're weird. That's why I fell for you."

"OK, Tony," she smiled sadly. "It's time to go to bed now."

"Is it night already?"

"Yes."

"Oh, OK. Kiss goodnight?"

"Kiss goodnight," she said and leaned down to kiss his lips even though she knew it was wrong for them to do so. Tony responded to the kiss as she expected he would, and when she finally pulled away, Tony had a bright smile on his face, eyes still closed. "I love you, Pepper."

"I love you, Tony," she told him before he passed out for the rest of the day.

Needless to say, he would not remember anything about it the next day.

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**A/N:** Check my profile for Pepper's outfit when she visited Sasha. Review if you liked!


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: **Huh! I'm gonna say some of you liked the last chapter. Well, we only have two more chapters to go (Chapter 10 and the Epilogue) and we end this story. If you want to know what happens after this one, don't forget to sign up for alerts. In case I haven't mentioned it before, the story that began with _The Last Month_ spans across SEVEN stories, and this is just #2.

Thank you in advance for reading and reviewing, especially for reviewing since it encourages me to post more often :)

Grab a tissue for this one…that's all I can say. **SilverPedals1402** had it right in her latest review: "I have a feeling the next chapter won't be so kind."

;)

* * *

**Chapter 9**

The cold had lasted more than just 24-hours, and had inevitably transferred to Pepper as well. Five days later, Tony was back at the office to make sure the acquisition of Hammer Multinational was finalized, and Pepper was still in bed, groaning and moaning with a high fever and partially unconscious due to the side effects of the medicine the doctor had sent her way. She was feeling much better today – comparatively speaking – but Tony had insisted she stayed home, assuring her he would return as soon as the Hammer issue was straightened out.

She had not complained about staying behind as she knew closing on their acquisition was rather overdue. In addition, she was still afraid he would remember the events of the first day he had come down with his cold. So far, he had not given her any indication that he did but the anxiety was still present in her every day since then. The illness had truly ruined their week and weekend, and they had only been able to say goodbye to Rhodey from a distance before he had left for the Air Force Academy for good. Her birthday celebration was still on hold even though Tony had already given her her gift: a silver necklace with a diamond pendant in the shape of a pinwheel flower; one that he had had her choose herself with the excuse that it was for Maya so that he was sure the ginger would love it.

Tony rubbed his temples vigorously; the light of the screen hurt his eyes even though he had the contrast and brightness as low as he could. He was not feeling as awful as he had last week, but he was not 100% back to full health. He had gone to the Makluan Temple a couple of times to run a health scan using his own machines and had found out that the Extremis virus had combined with the medicine he had taken. The virus had prevented him from overdosing himself with the amount of medication he had self-prescribed himself, but it had instead heightened the side-effects for each pill he had taken, particularly the disorientation and confusion side-effects.

He could not remember much of what had happened the first day he came down with the cold other than how hard he had tried to cure himself before Pepper found out about it and some random dreams about kissing her and making out with her. It had been a while since he had kissed her, and no amount of kissing Maya had made him want to kiss Pepper any less.

_Suck it up, Stark_, he told himself. _You and Pepper are done._

His eyes traveled to the bottom right corner of the screen to note that it was past five o'clock in the afternoon. He had left the house at around ten in the morning, hoping to be at the office for only a couple of hours, but the pile of overdue work that had been waiting for them was ridiculous. The last thing he wanted was for Pepper to come back to work harder than she should after being sick for days, so one quick task had turned into twenty long ones, and now here he was sorting through the preliminary inventory of Hammer Multinational's projects and products.

"They've got so much shit. No wonder they don't know what was taken."

He skimmed through the pages and pages of inventory, mentally making notes of the first things he would take care of once he was back to normal. _The Mandroids, Project Titanium, the Ex-Wife…_

Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of one particular inventory line: written in bold, red letters and with several exclamation marks was the word MISSING. Curiosity slayed the cat.

"What the hell?"

Tony double-clicked on the line and read the log reports, one by one. At first he thought he was reading the story of how said item had disappeared from the warehouse or had been unaccounted for for weeks but the more he read the more he knew this was far more serious than he had initially thought, especially when he remembered that he now owned the company and any actions or misuse of any of the products would become his responsibility.

"What is this, anyway?" He asked himself as he copy/pasted the serial number of the item into a second database and waited for the slow mainframe connected to Hammer Multinational's system to find the name of the missing product. Tony sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk, promising himself this would be the last thing he would do today before going home. He could feel the medicine wearing off by now, and he did not want to be stuck in traffic with the remnants of a cold.

_Pepper needs some vitamin C_, he reminded himself. _I've got to get her some vitamin C_.

The sound of his Stark Pod ringing made him realize he had closed his eyes, and when he opened them he directed them to his phone. He pressed the device's blue button as he already had the wireless earpiece in his ear and cleared his throat.

"Tony Stark."

"_Hello, Mr. Stark. It's Dr. Ross."_

"_Dr. Ross: reminds me of Santa Claus!"_ Tony could almost hear Pepper saying. He had not heard from the doctor in weeks and his sudden call surprised him. "Hi, Doc. How are you?"

"_Oh, same ol' over here. How about you?"_

"Recovering from a cold," Tony said and stood up. "But I'll survive."

"_Drink plenty of fluids,"_ Dr. Ross said.

"Will do. Uhm, is everything alright?"

"_I hope so. I'm going to skip the pleasantries, son, if you don't mind, and go straight to the reason for my call. Have you seen Patricia?"_

"Yeah, every day. Why?"

"_I probably shouldn't be calling you about this but since she's not answering her phone and there's no one else we can call…"_

Tony began to panic. "What do you mean? What's wrong with her?"

"_We just…we just really wish she had not canceled her therapy sessions. Marie was looking forward to helping her."_

"What?" He barely got out. "I thought…we thought Marie had thrown her back moving apartments."

"_What? No! What are you talking about? Marie has her own house. Anyway, is Patricia getting help somewhere else? I need to close the file for the insurance company but I wanted to make sure she's getting some sort of physical therapy; she needs it."_

"Hey, Doc, uhm. Are you _sure _about this? Josh has been coming to the apartment to give Pepper therapy since Marie has been unavailable. I mean, other than the last two times we had to cancel on him because Pepper got my cold, she's been getting therapy three times a week."

"_Your cold? You two living together?"_

"Yeah."

"_Oh, well, uhm…that's not unexpected. Anyway, who's Josh?"_

"The guy that's been covering for Marie while she's out?"

"_Mr. Stark, Marie is not out. She's never been out. She hasn't gone to meet with Miss Potts because she called and canceled the therapy with us. And, I don't know any Josh. What's his last name?"_

"Josh…" Tony began. "Ahem, Josh…"

"_You don't look like Marie," Pepper said._

"_I would hope not," the man smiled brightly and extended his hand toward Pepper. "I'm Josh. I'm replacing Marie."_

"_For today?" Pepper asked and returned the handshake with a skeptical look. "I wasn't notified that she was out."_

"_Yeah, sorry about that. It was a last minute thing. She threw her back."_

"_What? How? Is she OK?" _

"_She was moving apartments this weekend and stretched more than she should've. Ironic, considering she should've known better."_

"_Aw, no!" Pepper's hands flew to her cheeks. "That's awful! How long is she going to be out? Is she at the hospital?"_

"_I'm not sure. The specifics are not released to the rest of us for her personal protection but I do know she's going to be out for a while. I hope you don't mind me replacing her. I can definitely call the office and have someone else stop by if you prefer."_

"_Oh, no, nonsense! You're fine, I just…I wasn't expecting anyone other than her. I'm sorry if I sounded rude."_

The inventor's throat suddenly dried. He did not know the man's last name and he had the slight suspicion that Pepper did not either. Why had they never asked for a last name? Why did he not give them a business card? In fact, now that he thought about it, the situation was not as normal as he had thought it had been. How was Josh even getting up to the penthouse? Was it not supposed to be blocked to visitors?

"_Mr. Stark?"_

"I…I don't know…"

"_What?"_

"His last name, I don't know it."

"_That's odd. Maybe we're not talking about the same person? Am I confusing you with someone else? This is Tony Stark, right? You're with Pepper Potts?"_

Tony felt his head spin. The situation was too familiar for comfort.

"_Hey, you there, do you know Patricia Potts?" The scientist heard the familiar voice ask, and his eyes snapped open to stare at the tall, redheaded woman that now stood near him. His eyes narrowed at her and he almost felt flamethrower-like powers forming in his mouth, making him wish he could suddenly go Fin Fang Foom all over her ass._

_ The nerve of this woman, Tony thought as she walked even closer to him and leaned down to be at eye level with him._

_ "Hey, kid. Do you happen to know Patricia Potts?" The woman asked again._

_ "Of course I do. Is this some kind of joke, Loretta?"_

_ The woman straightened out her back. "Do I know you?" The woman tilted her head in confusion and caused Tony to groan and stand up from his position on the ground._

_ "Very funny, Mrs. Potts. Are you here to gloat that you won?"_

_ "Won? What the hell are you talking about, young man? I don't even know who you are! How dare you talk to me like this?"_

_ "Not know me?" Tony spat back. "Did you forget that you threatened to sue me just a few weeks ago?"_

_ "Sue you? You must have me confused with someone else. I haven't been in New York in years! Now, I don't know what your problem is but, you said you know my daughter, right?"_

_ "You mean your adopted daughter?"_

_ The woman took a step back away from Tony. "OK, who are you and how do you know that?"_

"Listen," Tony began. "I have to go. I'll talk to Pepper about this, alright?"

"_OK. Say hi to her for me."_

"I will," Tony said and did not wait for the doctor to say anything else before he hung up. His hands were shaking and he clumsily grabbed the pod to dial Pepper's number, sighing in relief when the call was answered.

"Hey, Pepper, it's me. Guess who just called me?"

"_I'm sorry,"_ a voice Tony had forgotten about said in an eerie tone, making the inventor struggle to find his chair and slowly sit in it. _"The person you're trying to reach is currently…indisposed."_

Tony clenched his jaw and fists but kept the panic from his voice. "Where is she?"

"_Wouldn't you like to know?"_

"What do you want?" He asked and tried using Extremis to connect with his Stark satellite to find the location of Pepper's phone.

"_What you owe me. Only what you owe me."_

"What is that?"

"_You were my retirement guarantee, kid. You cheated me out of it."_

"It wasn't intentional."

"_It appears nothing you do ever is. Isn't that what happened to your girl, too? You never intended for her to be taken by the crazy blonde, right?"_

"How do you know about that?"

"_Computers talk, Stark, and so did Red while she was awake and tried to whack me with a chair. She's grown__** so**__ much since the last time I saw her. She's filling up quite nicely, but you already know that, right?"_

"Don't touch her," Tony all but barked.

"_Too late. I had to touch her to bring her here. I had to touch her to inject her with a little something, and I touched her every Monday, Wednesday and Friday…in your own home."_

"How did you find us?"

"_I never lost you. I just kept my distance. Tell me, Tony: how is your cold?"_

Tony narrowed his eyes. The location of Pepper's pod was untraceable so far. "Was that you?"

"_Of course! How else could I get you to leave her alone long enough to take her? It was meant for her to get it before you did, but it still worked out in the end. To be honest with you, I thought you'd never leave. You're like her guard dog now, rabies and all. I think I might start calling you Cujo."_

"Why did you take her? I'm the one you have the problem with."

"_Leverage. She's my insurance. She's the reason why you're going to transfer 50 million dollars into my account every year until the day I die."_

"You mean until I find you and kill you."

"_You can't find me, and I can kill her before you kill me."_

"How do I even know she's still alive? I'm not transferring anything until you prove to me she's alive."

"_My, my! Aren't we demanding when we have no right? Very well. Your funeral…or hers…"_

"Don't touch her!" Tony managed to say before the call ended, which left him feeling even more nauseous than he thought he could feel.

He could not believe it. He just could not fucking believe his luck! How was it that he had been fooled twice? TWICE! First Whitney pretending to be Loretta and now Ghost pretending to be Josh! He had fallen for the same trick again, and this time Pepper was in even more danger than she had been with Whitney. Even if the blonde had almost killed her, he knew that with Ghost there would be no almost. He was a mercenary after all – a damned good one at that, and he did not make mistakes.

_Please, no_, Tony covered his face with his hands, feeling a sense of déjà vu invade him that almost crippled his ability to think. He replayed the conversation he had just had with Ghost, trying to find a clue of where they could be, what his plan was. His attempts at trying to track the location of Pepper's pod had been unsuccessful; probably thanks to the mercenary himself.

"_Too late. I had to touch her to bring her here. I had to touch her to inject her with a little something, and I touched her every Monday, Wednesday and Friday…in your own home."_

"I have to go home," the inventor stood up from the chair as he called on his suit. _I've got to start there. Pepper, hold on, please._

By the time he exited through the back door of Stark Solutions, Tony was already suited up, but if he had waited two more seconds he would have seen the name of the invention that had been missing from Hammer Multinational and would have realized the gravity of the situation.

The nanovirus Hammer had used against Mr. Fix was gone.

xxxXXXxxx

The next time she opened her eyes was because a bright light was shining on her face. She blinked a few times and looked away, trying to avoid the light at all costs. As she tried to ignore the uneasiness she was currently feeling, she began to realize the grimness of her condition.

She was tied to a metal chair, still in her pajamas, socks and no shoes. She could feel the mustiness in the air, and she wished she did not have to breathe as the smell around her was almost unbearable. From what she could see, the place was abandoned and in terrible condition, and in the hot summer day the temperature was starting to quickly rise to uncomfortable levels. Not even the side-effects of the cold medicine she had taken were making her feel better, and she wished she had gone to work with Tony as she had wanted to do so in the first place.

_Tony_, she worried about him, about what he would do if he found out what happened to her. Someone had taken her – again, and again it was due to his connections with her. _Please be OK, Tony. Please, please be OK._

"Ah," She heard the man's voice – Josh or whoever he was – behind her. "I was hoping I hadn't hit you in the head that hard. Tony won't pay me if you aren't breathing."

"Tony's not going to pay you anything, either way."

The man laughed aloud and Pepper wanted nothing more than to punch him in the face. "Oh, he will pay. Year after year after year. I have his little girlfriend. He's going to give me whatever I want."

"I'm not his girlfriend. You're a lousy researcher, whoever you are."

"Name's Ghost. We've never officially met before but we knew about each other through Stark, although I think you forgot about me."

"No loss there," the ginger muttered under her breath but Ghost still heard her.

"You're too confident for someone who's on the verge of dying."

"I'm not dying," Pepper said with a roll of her eyes. "You just said that without me breathing, Tony won't give you whatever it is that you want. You won't kill me."

"Not right away, I won't." Ghost breathed in her ear and made her want to throw up. To think that this man had posed as her physical therapist for weeks sickened her; to think he had been touching her, spent time at her home.

"Does he even know where I am?"

"He knows you're with me."

"You have my phone. He's going to track you down."

"No, he won't. Tony's not the only one good with computers, you know. I hacked into your phone before we came here. His satellite won't be able to track you."

"He'll find a way. He found me last time."

"I'm not making the same mistakes that blonde psycho made."

"I hope you get my cold."

"Were you always this arrogant? What does Stark even see in you?"

"Well, _hello_, didn't you just say I'm arrogant? What else does he need to see?"

"Ugh," Ghost groaned. "Whatever, Red. I need you to do me a favor."

"Really?" She rolled her eyes. "What favor?"

"Shut up," he said and slapped a piece of tape on her mouth. "And smile for the camera."

"Mhh?"

As if on cue, the camera behind the bright light began rolling, and as if giving out a speech to the nation, Ghost began to talk. "Hey, Tony! You asked for some proof that the girl is alive, right? Well, here she is."

Pepper narrowed her eyes at the man and mumbled behind the tape what sounded like nothing more than curse words directed at her kidnapper.

"She's fine, for now. But a cold is more than what she's got. She's got a virus alright, you both do, but the one she has is much worse than your common one."

Ghost then pulled out a small device, the size of the palm of his hand and displayed it to the camera. "Do you remember this, Stark? Do you remember what happened the last time anyone had this virus in them?"

Ghost let the information sink in for a second before he walked over to Pepper and brushed the device down the side of her face. "I'm sending this video to you in the next five minutes via satellite, directly to your suit. If I don't get a wire transfer confirmation in the next hour, I'm pressing the trigger and you know what will happen then. I'll even record her screams for you."

Pepper pulled her head away from him and he just got closer to her, and before he realized what was happening, Pepper slammed her head against his with all the force she could muster. Ghost screamed in pain and momentarily lost his balance but as soon as he regained it he backslapped Pepper with all his force, leaving her unconscious once again.

"Clock's ticking, Stark," Ghost said to the camera. "You better wire the funds before I have my fun with her."

xxxXXXxxx

Tony took off his helmet after the recording ended and he threw it against the wall, denting it in such a way that it went right through the kitchen wall and landed in Pepper's room.

"Fuck!"

He took in deep breaths, ran to his room, and began uploading the video to his laptop for further analysis. It would take about five minutes for the video to encode, so he returned to Pepper's room to continue looking for any clue that would tell him where she was. He had no problem wiring the funds to Ghost, but that alone would not guarantee her safety. The man had not said what he wanted to do with the ginger after the initial wire. Maybe he would keep her, maybe he would kill her, or maybe he would send her back.

"No," Tony whispered and picked up his helmet from the floor. "If he sends her back, I can cure her. I can get the nanobots out of her system. He must know that."

Unless, of course, Ghost truly anticipated that to be Tony's plan and already planned to activate them when Tony tried to flush them out of her system. _Damn him!_

Even though the apartment was trashed, there had not been anything so far that Tony could have used to find her. It appeared that Pepper had given Ghost a run for his money, and that at least gave the inventor some comfort amidst the chaos that was now their home.

_This is our home. It will still be __**our**__ home. He's not taking her away from me. No one will again._

After one final glance at her room, the billionaire returned to his room and to his laptop to see the video had just finished encoding. Tony watched it several times from different angles and speeds, and it was not until he tried to adjust its brightness that he finally saw a light at the end the tunnel; quite literally.

It was painful to see Pepper's condition and then hear the sound of Ghost's hand connecting with her face at the end, but if the ginger had to endure her current fate, the inventor could endure watching it over and over again; especially once something in the video caught his eye for a second time, making him sigh in relief.

_Idiot_, Tony thought of Ghost before he returned to Pepper's room and rummaged through her jewelry box – the same box Gene had given her when leaving the hospital. Since Pepper did not have much left from her life before her kidnapping, she had been slowly buying new items of all kinds. She was not very fond of jewelry per se, but she did enjoy having something to wear for a special occasion. In fact, the most expensive piece of jewelry she now owned was the gift he had given her two days ago for her birthday – albeit late due to their illness.

Said piece was gone from her box, and Tony hoped it was also gone from the apartment as well.

_It has to be it._

Iron Man returned to his laptop and zoomed into the video, particularly Pepper's face and chest. He had the computer play with the video a few more times to confirm his suspicions, and when he saw that his eyes were not deceiving him, he smiled.

"Computer, track PR-911," Tony returned the helmet to his head and began walking to his balcony.

_"Tracking, PR-911. Please stand by."_

Iron Man slid open the balcony door and took to the skies, hanging up in the air until his computer spoke again.

_"Location acquired. Setting flight path to destination. Arrival in t-minus 30 minutes."_

"That's not good enough," Tony said.

_ "Activating orbital features. Estimated flight time: five minutes."_

"That's much better. Let's go," Iron Man said before heading in the direction where the PR-911, the Miniaturized GPS Tracker, was located. The miniaturized tracker that he had embedded in Pepper's necklace; the same diamond necklace that had shone brightly in the video thanks to the terribly bright light.

xxxXXXxxx

_ "Pep, can you hear me?" He brushed her bangs out of her face and lightly shook the girl by her shoulders. "It's me, Tony. It's OK, Pepper." He kissed her cheek. "I've got you, Pep. I'm going to take you back home with me."_

"Tony?" Pepper whispered and opened her eyes, only to realize she had been dreaming again. She had had that dream before, a couple of times actually, and it always made her feel at home. The place she was currently in reminded her of the location of her dream – humid, musty and dark – even though she could not tell where either of them were located, but it was the way Tony had held her in his arms that made her feel welcome every time she had that dream.

She had felt the shake he had given her shoulders, as well as the kiss and brush of her hair off her face, and even though her eyes were always closed, she could sense the worry in his voice, in the way he had said the last line: "_I'm going to take you back home with me."_

_Home._ She blinked a few times, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness around her. This was a sure contrast to the bright light she had woken up to before – however long ago it had been – but that did not make it pleasant. She was no longer in the chair either, and the tape on her mouth had been removed, most likely to keep her from suffocating if her cold closed up her nasal airways. Her hands and feet were still tied, however, and she now lay on her side on the floor. _I want to go home._

She remained still and silent for a long time, trying to think of something to do to help herself. Ghost had given Tony a deadline, but she had no idea how close she was to getting blown up or whatever the man planned to do with her. She could not remove the ties around her wrists and ankles either and she could tell that her kidnapper was not an amateur.

_He's probably watching me right now._

She again waited for a long time until her back began to hurt and she rolled herself until she was able to sit up. She looked all around her but saw nothing more than darkness and yet again she waited for signs that she was being watched. When nothing else came up, she got on her knees and slowly began to pull herself up until she was able to stand upright. She was not sure why she had even bothered to do so seeing as she could not freely walk around but doing something made her feel somewhat useful for whoever came to rescue her.

_That's if I don't rescue myself first._

Left with no other choice, she began hopping her way in no particular direction. She hopped for a few minutes until her recovering leg screamed for relief and she stopped. She took a deep breath and decided to rest against a wall, only that the wall was not a wall but a door, and it was unlocked as it lacked a doorknob.

"AH!" She knew the hit on her back when she fell to the ground was going to leave a mark.

She arrived at another room, this one a tad brighter than the one before but not any less creepy for it. She again repeated her steps of rolling, kneeling and then standing up. Despite the pain in her leg she began hopping again, and when she reached another door she slammed it with her shoulder. The third room she landed in was quite bright.

"Now we're getting somewhere. Guy's not even following me. Tony musta paid him up and he just left me here, the asshole," she whispered to herself and it was then that she heard the faint sounds of grunts coming from outside. "What was that?"

Or was it inside?

She rolled around for what she hoped was the last time before she got on her knees. Her leg was very tired by now, so standing up from a kneeling position without her arms to balance herself was rather difficult for her. She tried several times and failed, but when it finally worked she silently cheered for herself. She took a moment to take in enough air and regain some energy to start hopping again, but her first hop became the only one when the old wooden floor gave in under her weight and she fell right through it…

And landed on someone.

The ginger blinked several times, somewhat disoriented by the fall and the dust it had lifted. She knew she had not landed on the floor when she felt something cushiony underneath her, but her recovery was not fast enough to run away from it. In the blink of an eye she was off the ground again, being grabbed violently by her hair and manhandled by the kidnapper once more.

"Look who decided to join us, Iron Man. She just couldn't keep her location a secret, couldn't she? Or maybe she just likes to get in trouble."

_Iron Man?_ Pepper's eyes flew in the direction Ghost was pointing her and before her was the man in the red and gold suit. His armor was a little worse for wear, missing a few parts here and there, and it certainly did not shine like she had seen it on television a few times, but the most shocking part of it all was the fact that he was here and apparently fighting for her.

"Let her go, Ghost! I'll kill you if you touch her again!"

"You may have taken the remote from me," Ghost said. "But I can still make another one. You can keep that remote as a souvenir if you'd like. I can still kill her whenever I want."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Pepper asked and then wiggled her body so that she at least waved her legs in front of his face to annoy him. "Don't you know who that is? That's Iron Man, you idiot! He's gonna beat you up!"

"Why don't you shut up?" Ghost groaned and pulled back on Pepper's head by her hair, making her scream in pain. "You should've left your hair short, Red."

"Name's…Pepper…" the redhead struggled to say, trying her best not to look as confused and scared as she felt. "Let me…go…"

"Let her go or I swear I'll…"

"You'll what? Shoot us both?" Ghost asked and rearranged Pepper so that she now served as his human shield. "Go ahead, you know it will go right though me."

Pepper wiggled around even though she knew freeing herself from the man was impossible even if just to make it difficult for Ghost to take her down. Iron Man stared at her, crushed remote in hand, unsure of what else to do and clearly not wanting to hurt his ginger in the process of saving her. "Last chance, Ghost. This is between you and me. Let Pepper go."

"That sounds reasonable to me," Pepper said. "Why don't you two settle your differences and I'll just be on my merry…AH!"

Before Pepper could continue, Ghost's patience had run out and he began attacking Tony in any way he could, always making sure Pepper's body was shielding him from Tony's attacks. He was royally pissed that Tony had somehow outsmarted him and had found their location so quickly (he still was not sure how he had pulled that off), and after fighting with him for the last half hour, he was getting tired of the pointless back and forth.

Tony had been able to take away the remote from him and had immediately destroyed it but Ghost had landed a few hits of his own, and the mercenary knew Tony's time and energy were wearing thin. He could just very well disappear with the ginger this very moment, but he knew Tony was hot on his trail right now by using some unknown method he was not aware of. He had to tire him, make his suit unusable so that Tony could not follow if he wanted another chance to blackmail the young inventor at a later time.

Iron Man was taking more hits than he was giving, mostly because every time he had tried to attack Ghost, he would disappear, become intangible or put Pepper's body in the way of an attack. His battery was at 25% after trying to quickly decommission the man with the unibeam, and even though Tony had modified his suit to better withstand Ghost's antics, his chances of taking him down without hurting Pepper were now becoming slim.

"We can do this all day, Iron Man," Ghost said as he yet again flipped Pepper over to cover his right flank. "But how long do you think she will last?"

"Long enough to stop you," Iron Man responded before he asked his computer to activate his micro scan grid and began attacking Pepper rather than Ghost. The sudden change in tactic took the mercenary by surprise and before he realized what had occurred, Pepper kicked him in the shin, rolled over on her side and began running – limping, toward Iron Man.

"What the…" Ghost began and then it dawned on him: Tony had attacked Pepper to char away the binds; his human shield was now wobbling away for her life. "OK, you got me there," the mercenary conceded with a shrug. "But not for long."

"Pepper," Iron Man called out to her and she practically threw herself into his arms. "Are you alright?"

"I've been worse," she said between pants; the cold metal against her warm body relieved some of the discomfort she felt. "Any chance War Machine is around here?"

"He's on vacation."

Pepper chuckled. "Well, that sucks."

"Oh, shit!" Iron Man picked up the redhead in his arms, taking off in the direction of the roof but never making it. Ghost threw a large bomb toward the inventor and his cargo, separating them both on impact and sending them flying off in opposite ways. The structure they were in was already too unstable, and half of the still standing floors collapsed with the magnitude of the attack.

"Activate shields!"

"_Shields damaged in explosion,"_ the computer responded and Tony cursed aloud.

"Where's Pepper?" Tony demanded and looked left and right, the dust and debris still falling made it difficult to find her. "Where is she?"

"_Tracking PR-911. Location acquired."_

"There she is," Iron Man flew in her direction only to find she was buried under a pile of rubble. "Pepper! Pepper, can you hear me?"

"_Pep, can you hear me?" He brushed her bangs out of her face and lightly shook the girl by her shoulders. "It's me, Tony. It's OK, Pepper."_

"PEPPER!"

She was breathing, awake and confused, but she was alright. "Come on, Pep, stay with me!" He said and picked her up from the floor in his arms.

_Pep_, the ginger repeated in her head as she tried to focus her eyes and grabbed onto the hero near her from whatever part of the armor she could. _Did he just call me 'Pep'?_

"_You always liked being called Pepper."_

_ "That's what I've been told. You also used to call me that, Pepper?"_

_ "Sometimes," he shrugged, hands returning to his pockets. "I'd sometimes call you 'Pep'?"_

Could it be? Could it be that Iron Man…?

"There you are!" Ghost said and aimed one of his new laser grenade guns toward the couple, and without shields all Iron Man could do was move out of the way. It was difficult to walk around the collapsing structure at the same time that they were being shot at, so Tony flew them both to the nearest window, rearranged Pepper so that most of her body was protected by his, and jumped…

From the tenth floor.

One of his armored boots failed him on the way out and their landing was sketchy at best, but he still managed to keep her from taking any damage from the fall. Ghost was right behind them, jumped out of the same window Tony had just broken, disappeared in midair, and then landed softly on the ground just a few feet before them. Tony quickly jumped to his feet and stood in front of Pepper who was still trying to make sense of what was going on.

"You know something? I've just figured out I've been going about this all wrong."

"What?"

"Well, my plan was to blackmail you, right? Put some old-fashioned nanobots inside of her – which I did, and then threaten her life forever. But, I think I just thought of a better plan."

"What is that?" Iron Man asked and felt Pepper crawl her way up by using his legs and back as support until she could look over his shoulder to face Ghost.

"After breaking into Hammer Multinational and finding out what happened to your ex-girlfriend Whitney, I figured out how to replicate Madame Masque's technique – it wasn't that difficult, really. That's how I got into your fancy apartment as Josh…how I kept an eye on you…"

"So?" Tony asked just to earn him some time to think of what to do next. The inventor could already tell what Ghost's new plan was and he knew it did not bode well for him and Pepper.

"So, why go through the trouble of having to put up with you and that pesky redhead if I could just disappear you both? Why waste my time and yours blackmailing you if I could just as easily take your place as the CEO of Stark Solutions and have my money with me every day? No one would ever know, right, Tony? All anyone would see is you."

"Tony?" The ginger whispered and took a step back. "Why…why did he just call you 'Tony'?"

"Pepper," Iron Man began and made sure to grab her wrist so she would not walk away from him. "Pepper, stay right here where it's safe."

"Are you...Is-is that you, Tony?"

"_So, this Iron Man guy, he's something else."_

_ "What do you mean?"_

_ "Well, other than obviously being a badass, which is good to be one if you're going to be risking your life like that, he's the most arrogant jerk I've ever heard of in my life."_

_ "What did you say? How can you even make a statement like that?"_

_ "What do you mean how can I? Look at him," she pointed to the screen where Iron Man was waving at the cameras. "Yeah, he stopped those guys from robbing city hall but, come on! He doesn't have to act all mighty about it. Like I said, most full-of-himself guy I've ever seen. It's so irritating."_

_ Tony scoffed. "Pepper, first of all, this is the first time you've even seen the guy in action; he's actually pretty down-to-Earth. And, second of all, you only know, like, five people from the millions of humans alive."_

_ "What are you, his boyfriend?" She spat and frowned. "You don't have to get all pissy about it; it's just MY opinion of the armored jerk. Besides, I'm well aware of my issue, thank you very much. You don't have to remind me of it!"_

"All…all this time…"

"Pepper, now is not the time to…NO!"

As Iron Man took a second to look back at Pepper, Ghost took advantage of the situation and melted into the ground only to appear behind the redhead and tried blowing her brains out with his gun. Tony reacted at the last moment and pushed her out of the way, taking the full force of Ghost's attack. Pepper rolled away from the fight as much as she could and when she felt she was at a safe distance, she stood up.

_Tony is Iron Man? I can't believe it! Tony is Iron Man!_

Ghost pulled out another grenade from his back and removed the lock. Tony was ready for it but the mercenary fooled him and ended up throwing it toward the unsuspecting redhead watching the fight in awe. "Oops." Ghost added and melted back onto the ground.

"PEPPER!"

"Oh, shit!" The redhead took a step back when she saw the smoking grenade land near her feet. She only had a few seconds to run away from it as fast as she could before she was tackled down to the ground and pinned down by Iron Man. Even under his protection, she could feel the heat and destruction the grenade was causing. Tony clenched his jaw to keep him from screaming in pain as the parts that were no longer protected by his suit were getting burned and pierced by pieces of shrapnel.

"Tony!"

When the explosion ended, Pepper rolled Iron Man off her and he landed on his back with a thud, groaning as he did so. "Oh, my God! No, no, no, no, no, no! Tony, Tony, are you alright?"

Her hands shook above him, grabbing at pieces of the armor that were still sizzling and pulled them off him with her bare hands, not caring how much damage she was causing to her own skin. It was then she felt the onset of another flashback coming to her, and even though she tried to push it aside, it still partially incapacitated her.

"_Tony, please. Please, don't do this. Let me say something," she sniffed. "I know I screwed up and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for pushing you away! I don't want us to split up! I don't want us not to see each other again!"_

_ "Let go." He deadpanned._

_ Pepper closed her eyes and dug her nails into the armor. "NO! I WON'T!"_

_ "I don't want to hurt you." He warned as the repulsor on his boot began charging up to release himself from her tight grip. "Let go, Pepper. I won't ask you again."_

_ Pepper opened her eyes when she felt the bottom of the boot begin to heat up and looked up at the cold face of iron staring back at her. "Why are you doing this?" She asked as she reluctantly let go of his foot when it got too hot for her._

_ "Because this is what you wanted me to do. Goodbye, Pepper."_

"No," Pepper began as tears started forming and now realizing where the burns on her hands had come from when she had woken up at the hospital. "This is not what I wanted. This is not what I want."

"Pepper…r-run…" Tony retracted the helmet and winced when she took off another piece of the charred suit off him. "He…he's out to get us now…run…please…go…"

"NO! I'm not leaving you! I'm not…"

"Pepper, please…"

"NO!" She said again and tried her best to lift him but the weight of the suit and his own was too much for her. "Come on, Tony. Help me get you up! We need to get out of here!"

"As if I'd let you two go," Ghost said and slowly emerged from the ground, his gun pointing directly at Pepper's face when she kneeled in front of Tony's lying body. "You two are a lot of trouble, you know that? I should've just killed Red in the apartment when I had the chance."

"Please, let her go," Tony said and forced himself to pull himself up on the ground by resting his weight on his bent elbow. "Just, let her go…"

"Too late, Stark. She's seen too much."

Ghost redirected his attention from Tony to Pepper who just stared at the barrel of the gun pointed at her. "Such a shame. We could've made a great team. I like your spunk, Red," the man added.

Pepper hung her head, waiting for her fate and it was then that she spotted the shiny item attached to Ghost's left leg, inches away from her right hand.

"Ghost?" Pepper whimpered. "Can I…can I say goodbye to Tony?"

"Oh, come on! Who do you think I am? Mr. Rogers?"

"Please?" she looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Please?"

"No, Pepper…" Tony screeched behind her, calling on Extremis to take off his useless suit and feeling the end was near for the two of them.

"Please?" she insisted, her eyes never leaving Ghost's face.

"Ugh," Ghost groaned. "Fine! Make it quick!"

Pepper nodded and pretended to pull herself up to face Tony but in a quick movement she reached for Ghost's dagger on his leg and tackled him with her entire body until they reached the ground. Shen then dug the knife into his stomach a couple of times and left it there before she rolled away from him.

Tony, who was as shocked as Ghost by Pepper's actions, was now standing up from the ground, seeing an opportunity to somehow get away. The redhead was already running towards him, urging him to get a head start but he waited for her. "Come on, Pepper!"

Now that suit was off he could ignore most of the pain that the failed heat shield had left behind on his skin but he was also aware that their last line of defense was gone. Pepper was almost near Tony, their fingertips almost touching, when Ghost materialized between them, forcing them to pull their hands away from each other. If his mask did not cover his face, Pepper knew she would be staring up at his murderous glare. "You little bitch!"

"NO!" Tony tackled Ghost from behind, but in his stumble only managed to make him land over Pepper. Ghost had pulled the dagger out from his stomach and was now trying to slit Pepper's throat with it at the same time he tried to get Tony off his back. "Get away from her!"

"I've had enough of you!" Ghost was angry now, feeling cheated and mocked by two teens with no guns. He was not playing around anymore. He had been delayed long enough.

Pepper struggled underneath the mercenary, and Tony struggled to pull him off her. Neither one of them was gaining any ground and the more they tried, the fiercer Ghost became.

The inventor finally got a good grip on Ghost's neck and shoulders and began pulling him off Pepper but the man quickly used the intangible feature of his suit and the blue-eyed boy ended up flying backward when his hands went right through him and landed on the ground on his back. Ghost knew he only had seconds to take out the ginger before Tony tried stopping him again, so he solidified himself once more, long enough to hold down Pepper and placed the tip of the dagger on the left side of her neck to make the cut, the blade so sharp she started to bleed by the simple move. He then pressed the long edge of the dagger against her skin and as he was about to set it in motion to end her life, his hands suddenly went limp.

And so did his body.

It almost landed on Pepper's panting form but something was keeping it from falling over her.

She had closed her eyes a second ago to not have her killer's face as her last memory before she died, but when no pain came to her other than the dead weight of Ghosts' knees on her thighs, she opened her eyes again to see the reason why she was not off playing harps now.

A ragged-breathing Tony was standing behind Ghost, his hands still on the man's head, holding onto the neck-breaking position that had taken the mercenary's life. As if just realizing what he had done, Tony stared down at his victim with wide eyes; his neck was now turned 180º thanks to the extra strength Extremis granted to the inventor. As opposed to just seconds ago, Ghost's face was now looking at Tony, and the back of his head was now facing Pepper even though the front of his body was still facing her.

"Tony? Did you…did you just…"

As if suddenly repulsed by the thought of holding a dead body, Tony angrily pushed Ghost's body off Pepper and then fell to his knees, his gaze lost and confused. Pepper slowly sat up and with calculated steps crawled over to the inventor. Her hands took their time sliding up his chest as her eyes briefly scanned his bleeding, burned and bruised body and when she finally reached his face she forced him to look down at her kneeling form.

"Tony? Tony talk to me."

The blue-eyed boy blinked a few times as he focused on the concerned look of his redhead. His shaking hands reached over her face and he briefly pressed his fingertips on her cheekbones before sliding them back to hold the sides of her face. He then noticed the blood running down her neck and he panicked. "Pepper? Oh, my God! Are you alright? You're bleeding! You-you…he got you!"

"No, I'm OK," she assured him as he examined the wound. "It's not deep," she whispered not sure if she was trying to calm him or her down. "It's not deep, Tony," she repeated. "I'm OK. I'm OK. Are you OK?"

He nodded as he pulled away from her neck but did not respond. Their faces then shifted to where Ghost's body laid next to them and when they faced each other again, they both jumped into the other's arms as if the reality of the situation had just hit them again with full force. "Oh, Tony! I was so scared! I thought he'd kill us both!"

Tony pulled her closer to his chest and rocked her back and forth although he was not sure if the movement was to comfort just her or him. "Shh, Pepper. It's over. He…he'll leave us alone now," he said as he kissed the side of her face multiple times.

"Why? Why did he come after me?"

Tony closed his eyes in shame and held her even tighter. There was no point in lying to her now. "Because," he paused and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Because I love you."

Pepper gasped both at the revelation and the memory it attached itself to.

"_This person," he continued, eyes glued to hers. "This enemy of mine…" he swallowed hard, "is the same one who targeted you."_

_Pepper looked down at her lap, taking in his words as he continued. "Instead of taking vengeance directly onto me, they went after the people I care about. First, my dad; and then, you."_

"People you care about," she whispered. "She…Whitney…she came after me because…because…"

"Because you mean the world to me," he whispered back to her. "Because you, Pepper, are _my_ world."

She rested her chin on his shoulder and remained silent for a long time as she heard Tony apologize for putting in her danger. He apologized for leaving her alone, for not watching over her, for not seeing what would happen to her.

"_Yeah?" she asked and left the thermometer on a handkerchief on his nightstand. _

"_Are you still mad at me?"_

_ "Why would I be mad at you?"_

_ "Because I walked out on you when you needed me; because I fucked up. I should've stayed with you when you asked me to stay. If I had, Whitney would've not taken you away from me; she would've not hurt you and you wouldn't have forgotten about me."_

Pepper finally pulled away from him and stared directly at his eyes, silently promising to continue the conversation at another time. "Let's go," she uttered. "Get me out of here."

Tony nodded to her and helped her stand up from the ground. He had enough sense now to call upon one of his armors from the Temple and it would be here in fifteen minutes. Those fifteen minutes with Pepper in his arms would be the longest and shortest and most silent and loudest of his entire life. Those fifteen minutes with her were heaven and hell, all at once. Those fifteen minutes of wait with her were long enough for Tony to make a final decision that would change his life and hers…forever.

* * *

**A/N:** A link to Tony's birthday gift to Pepper can be found in my profile. Like the story summary says: what do you think the "unthinkable" thing Tony will do for Pepper is?


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The first thing that Tony did when he and Pepper arrived at the Makluan temple was give Pepper the cure for the nanobots Ghost had implanted in her. The cure would take a few hours to completely flush the virus from her system but once it did, Pepper would be safe again… or as safe as she could be until the next threat against her life presented itself; Tony knew this to be a fact of life from now on, now that the secret was out.

Shortly after Mr. Fix 2.0 had been erased forever by Iron Man after Justin Hammer's unexpected zombification, Tony had worked on a cure for the nanobot virus just in case it fell into the wrong hands once again. He was grateful that he had done so despite how much Rhodey had always complained that the inventor continuously ended up using his enemies' weapons for his own benefit.

The two teens had been quiet for the most part since their arrival, lost in their own thoughts and speaking only when needed, especially when Tony had reported the location of Ghost's body to the authorities. As the mercenary he had been, and thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intervention, both Iron Man and Tony Stark would not be held liable for the death of the would-be assassin. Thank heavens for self-defense and Roberta Rhodes! Their victory was short-lived, however, as the life-and-death situation they had just overcome had left them with an entirely new life-and-death situation to face: themselves and their lives together…or lack thereof.

Pepper lay on top of a work table Tony had doubled as a makeshift bed to examine her injures and she looked down at her ruined pajamas with revulsion, wishing she could just go home and change from the dirty, sweaty and bloodied clothes that reminded her of what had just occurred – how close they had been to death. Tony, however, had said that it was necessary for her to stay in the temple until the bots were completely eliminated so that he could use his machines to run the confirmation scan that she was clear of the nanovirus. Tony himself was not fairing any better than her, and was currently trying his best to keep his grumbles to himself as he used a set of tweezers to extract the pieces of metal from his skin.

The redhead stared at his back and when she saw him flinch for the third time she rolled her eyes, sat up on the table and jumped off it. The concrete floor below her bare feet was cold and bitter, but at this point she did not care. She made a beeline for the inventor and walked around him, snatching away the tweezers from his hand as she passed him by and adjusted the desk lamp to her height on the stool in front of him. She grabbed Tony's left arm and eyed it with utmost attention, slowly sliding the fingertips of her free hand over his skin. When she felt the first bump of a metal shard sticking out she squinted and aimed the tip of the tweezers onto it until she got a good grip and in a swift move pulled it out. She repeated her calculated steps over and over again, and after five minutes, Tony's left arm was free of metal parts.

Still silently, she grabbed Tony's right arm and continued her task with the same care and concern as before. Once his arm was freed of the metal pieces, her gaze shifted to his neck. She could see some small parts also embedded in the skin there, so without a word she stood up and took off his t-shirt. He opened his mouth to complain and tried to stand up from the stool he was sitting on but one look and an arched eyebrow from her was all it took for him to stop and let her do as she pleased.

Her right arm extended to adjust the desk lamp once more and she aimed it at his neck, chest and shoulders. She decided it would make more sense to start at the top, by his neck, and work her way toward his stomach. Just as before, her fingertips scoured for the damned metal he had protected her from and she swiftly removed it in a rather painless move. When she finished his front side she twirled his chair and continued her task on his back and sides. Half an hour later, Tony's upper body was free of metal incrusts.

The ginger then examined his face and skull and was glad to find only a handful of metal pieces in inconspicuous places. She then placed the tweezers back on the table and stretched over it to grab the first aid kit to clean up the worst wounds he had. Throughout her attentions, Tony remained silent and stared at her every move, waiting for the best moment to speak again and ask her what she wanted to do now. Unfortunately, the opportunity never presented himself and before he knew it, he was been ushered to the bathroom with an order, not a recommendation. "Go take a shower," she told him. "Do you have a magnet we can use? It might help you clean your legs from the metal scraps faster than my tweezing can."

Tony scoffed, feeling stupid about not thinking about it before. "I do have one. Guess I should've done the same for my arms, chest and back, huh?"

"Maybe," she shrugged. "But I didn't want you to," she told him and then she ran a hand down his chest, drawing a small heart with her fingertips on his skin. She then looked up at him as she bit down on her lip, turned on her heels and left him wide-eyed and jaw-slacked by the entrance of the bathroom.

The inventor watched as she left his sight around the corner of the hall and exhaled his nervousness away before doing as he had been told. Ten minutes later, a clean and refreshed Tony emerged from the shower and found Pepper staring at a blinking, red dot on the wide screen. "What is that?"

Tony frowned. "Trouble. I have to go."

"Go, where?"

"Mission," he told her and began calling on his Mark I outfit. It was not his most powerful one, but the Hulk Buster was probably too much at this point, and he doubted whatever mission he was about to go into would be any worse than the one they had just barely survived. With awe, Pepper watched the suit literally fly toward him and attach to his body as if it had always belonged there, and in seconds Tony Stark had disappeared behind the mask of Iron Man.

"Tony, no!" She spat and shook her head in disbelief, catching him by surprise. "You can't do this! You-you just got back! You haven't even healed! You can't just go off to get injured _again_!"

"Pepper," he sighed, his voice disguised by the modulator. "This is what I do. This is what I've always done. It's nothing new. You've always sent me off and then welcomed me back. You just…you just forgot."

"Are you kidding me?" Her anger was seeping out of every word and her arms flailed in the air. "Are you telling me I just let you go out there to possibly die if something goes wrong? I don't believe it! I don't…" her head shook vehemently. "I can't…I can't let you go alone."

"Pepper, please. People need help. I _have_ to go."

"But…but…" Pepper's eyes landed on the incoming report of the mission; it appeared someone was attacking an embassy with what seemed like large cannons and other advanced weapons – the Maggia, in fact – trying to make a comeback without their ruler. Innocent civilians were at stake, true, but after just getting Tony back from certain death and risking his life for her, she could not make herself let him go just yet. "Tony…"

The blue-eyed boy walked over to her and placed his armored hands over her shoulders from behind, giving her what he hoped was a comforting massage to ease her tense muscles. Pepper hung her head and felt tears run down her face before she turned around and patted his helmet, looking for a way to open it. When Tony realized what she was trying to do he retracted the face plate and not a second later the redhead stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.

Her hands landed on his neck and pulled him closer to her face, and his hands found her waist, helping her balance herself. The kiss was bittersweet for her as with every encounter of their lips she held back another sob, and the stream of her tears became that much more constant. When she finally pulled away from him she wiped her tears she had left on his face with the care of someone who was about to lose the very person they loved more than anything else in the world.

"Come back," she ordered him, voice stern despite her broken demeanor "Be careful and come back."

"I always do," he gave her a small smile. "As long as you're here, I'll come back."

"How could I do this before? How could I let you go get hurt or worse?" She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his lips.

"You got used to it," he responded and kissed her closed eyelids.

"I…I _don't_ want to get used to this…"

Tony gulped, leaned down to her face once more and kissed her again; longer and deeper than before, as if this was the last kiss between them, and kept to himself the only response he could think to give about her statement. _You won't have to. I'll see to that._

"I'll be back," he whispered to her once he broke the kiss. "Stay here and if anything happens, have the computer call me."

All she could do was nod and run her fingertips down his cheeks one more time. She then took a step back from him to watch him close his faceplate, give her a small nod and then load himself inside the compartment that was attached to the exit she assumed was used for these occasions. Once she saw the compartment return to its original position, she knew Tony was gone.

The only sounds in the lab for a few minutes belonged to the beeping of the computers and her sobs as she curled up in a ball on the floor. Just a few days ago she had been certain that Tony and she did not belong together, that Tony was interested in Maya Hansen and not in her. How wrong had she been about everything! Tony was Iron Man and he did love her! Maybe as much as she felt she loved him, and now their futures were uncertain because of this turn of events; because Ghost had showed up, because her life was not as simple as she thought it had been.

How could they continue to live and work together knowing he was one step away from his grave every time he went out on a mission? How had he even survived them this long? Were all his enemies as vicious and coldblooded as Ghost? Would they all try to get to him through her? Would she be in constant danger her entire life?

"_Tony," Pepper began and stood up from the couch, walked over to the upset inventor, and placed her hands on his upper arms to stop him from pacing. "It's not as if you had a say in what happened to his company or him. If anything, it's Iron Man's fault this happened and not yours."_

_ Tony's head jerked back. "What do you mean?"_

_ "I looked up the reason why Justin Hammer is out of commission and even though the news said Iron Man had nothing to do with it, he was there and he didn't stop it. Just another reason I dislike the guy; he's as useful as sprinkling lemon on an open wound."_

_ "You think this is Iron Man's fault?"_

_ "Partially," she admitted. "I have no doubt the guy's well intentioned, but based on what you've told me he's done, he's lousy when it comes to foreseeing the consequences of his actions. He goes about it all wrong, as if he just rushes into action with no real plan and just pulls it out of his ass as he goes."_

_ Tony gulped. "Is that what you think about him?"_

_ "Yeah, I just hope he doesn't have family to get hurt by his lack of common sense. I'd be pissed with him if I was related to him and ended up in a pickle because of his boldness."_

"Oh, no!" Pepper cried even more and covered her face with her hands. "Oh, no! He must think that I…that I blame him…oh, FUCK!"

Pepper hardly ever resorted to using swear words, but she could not think of anything better to say at the moment to express her anger at herself. She felt like an idiot! She had inadvertently pushed Tony away with her actions and words. She had unknowingly placed blame of what had happened to her on him and he had just up and taken the responsibility for it; had not even argued back or tried defending himself. How could she have been so blind all this time? All this time he had been testing her, seeing if she was ready to continue the life they once had together and she had failed his test. She was not worthy; she was not worthy of being with him!

_But, it's just because I didn't know! Because I forgot!_

That was not a fair test, now, was it? It was like being asked to study for a chemistry test and then being tested on music – it just was not the same! Had he wanted her to fail? Did he really want not to love her anymore? What was his intention with her at this point? He was dating Maya and he seemed content with her but…what if…what if…

"I have to remember," Pepper told herself with new determination. "I have to remember everything and show him I can do this. He doesn't have to devote his life to worrying about my safety. If I'd known who Ghost was…if I'd known who his enemies were, I'd be better prepared. Maybe he can make me armor! Maybe I can fight alongside with him!"

_But first, I so have to shower_, she told herself with disgust before she ran to the back room Tony had showed her she could use to sleep, found something of his to wear, and washed up.

xxxXXXxxx

"Computer," Pepper began, fifteen minutes after starting her shower, "Show me everything you have stored regarding Pepper Potts."

_"Compiling data,"_ the computer responded and the redhead waited. Tony was yet to finish with his mission but she was not sure how much longer she had to find out everything she wanted to know before he returned. She knew she should have waited for him to come back but the deal had been that if she found out he had been keeping information from her, the agreement was off. Clearly, he had been lying about Iron Man and about them being a couple before her kidnapping, so the pact had theoretically already been broken. She was not mad about it, in fact, but it did give her a good reason to do what she was currently doing.

As the computer began ordering everything it had on her by chronological order, Pepper passed the time by organizing the lab. It was very similar to the one he had back at the mansion and she had to roll her eyes when she realized the arrangement she had followed to organize the Stark Solutions office was very similar to the organization this particular lab followed. Perhaps, she mused, she had subconsciously remembered this place and had used its pattern to make Tony comfortable at his workplace; make him feel at home.

_Another reason why I know we can make this, make us, work._

Ten minutes later, the computer announced it was ready to list the information it had found, but it was this very moment that a piece of paper pinned to a cork board caught her eye. It was not as if the paper was of a bright color or was different than all the other random notes pinned to the board, but it was the two words and the string of numbers written on it that made it seem familiar to her. She unpinned the wrinkled piece of paper from the board and held it in between her thumbs and index fingers and read it aloud.

"Private Eye."

_"Do you wish to run file: Private Eye?"_ The computer immediately asked as it recognized the name of the executable file it had come to run many, many times.

_It's a file?_ Pepper thought to herself before she remembered why the words sounded so familiar to her.

_Pepper eyed him with uncertainty, reading his face for any traces of dishonesty but she found none. She had no idea how strong their bond had been and she was now seeing why the inventor was practically desperate to keep their friendship intact at all costs. "Because Rhodey's a wuss like that," she jested and he chuckled._

_ "Yes, he is, and you're not. You're my own personal Private Eye. I need you."_

_His Private Eye_, she thought. Her eyes then scanned the numbers written on the second line of the paper and she knew she recognized them as well.

_"There's a library on the third floor, and a small lab I've been building so I can work from home. The elevator is at the end of the hall and the code to go up is 1357. The code to enter the lab is 09172009 but I need to add your thumbprint to the database before you can use it."_

_ The ginger nodded to him once and repeated the numbers in her mind for later recall. The first code was easy because it was just the first four odd numbers all in a row. The second code was longer and did not make any sense at first, but after repeating it in her mind in different ways she ventured a guess at what it could possibly mean._

_ "09172009? Is that standing for September 17, 2009?"_

_ "Uhm, yeah, it is. Why?"_

_ "Is that date significant to you?" She asked but did not immediately receive a response when Tony opened the door they had just arrived at and pushed it open._

_ "It's the first day I went to the Academy."_

"Computer," she took in a deep breath. "What can you tell me about the file: Private Eye?"

_"The file Private Eye has a creation date of May 3__rd__ by user Pepper Potts, A.K.A. Rescue. Since then, it has been ran 473 times by user Tony Stark, A.K.A. Iron Man. The size of the file is 15 megabytes and it was last viewed two days ago."_

"Two days ago?" Pepper whispered. _He came to the lab while I was at home, sick._

_ "Do you wish to run the file?"_

"Yes," Pepper said.

_ "Password?"_

"Uhm," the redhead stuttered; she had not expected it to have a password.

_"Password?" _The computer asked again.

"Uh…ahem…" Pepper looked left and right, trying to think what the password could be and when her eyes landed on the paper again, an idea came to her. "09172009."

_"Password accepted. Running holographic sequence for file: Private Eye."_

"Holographic?" The ginger managed to say before the lights in the lab turned off and a few feet from her a projection of herself appeared. She slowly walked up to it, surprised to see an image of herself standing in front of her and even more surprised when her hand went right through the image. "It's like the VR Designer. It's like…"

Pepper's next words were drowned by her own voice playing from the recording.

"_Tony, first of all, please don't shoot the messenger. I know Rhodey didn't want to be the one to give you the letter, but I couldn't have anyone else do it. I thought about leaving it in your room next to the clothes you let me borrow, but it somehow felt impersonal to do it that way. I would've preferred telling you this in person, but I didn't earn that right with the way I acted towards you. I was pressed for time and this was the only way I could think of telling you of my decision. I hope you understand."_

"What decision?" She mumbled.

_Even though I said it before, I want to apologize again for the wrong I did to you, and for the very few days our relationship lasted. I truly believed we would be together for a long time, but like the song says: you can't always get what you want. It was painful, it still is, to come to the realization that we will never know how good it could have been between us. I can only hope that the very few moments of happiness between us left you with a worthy memory of us for days to come. I know remembering you will bring a smile to my face."_

Pepper grabbed the closest chair she could find and sat in it, her eyes never leaving her distraught-looking image on the recording.

"_Thank you for the memories and time you shared with me; the good ones, the bad ones, and even the weird ones – especially the weird ones, actually."_

The holographic Pepper winked and smiled, and the real Pepper began tearing up with her, and not only because the message was sad in and of itself but because it reminded her of Tony's words when he was on his medicine high: _"You're weird today, Pep. I love it when you're weird. That's why I fell for you."_

Pepper shook her head and returned her attention to the projection.

"_Being with you was never easy or boring, and I hope my annoying traits are not the only thing you remember of me. I had a lot of fun and I hope you did too."_

When the holographic Pepper turned to stare behind her, the real ginger could not help to look in the same direction as well, but she then realized it was stupid to do so. This was a recording; there was really nothing behind it.

Right?

A seed had been planted.

"_I've decided to move with my mom to California. She's going to help me find my birth parents, and I will try to reconnect with them. There's nothing for me here anymore, and my dad was just given a major assignment that will force him to move to the Middle East for a while. My mom is going to help me enroll in a school over in California to finish the last three weeks of school, and after that I'm not sure what I will do other than to look for my birth mom and dad. Hey! I may even have brothers or sisters. Wouldn't that be nice?"_

"Stop," The redhead ordered and the computer immediately complied. "Replay the last part."

"_I've decided to move with my mom to California. She's going to help me find my birth parents, and I will try to reconnect with them."_

"Stop. Replay second sentence."

"_She's going to help me find my birth parents, and I will try to reconnect with them."_

"Stop. My birth parents? I'm…I'm adopted?"

The redhead felt her head spin and she had to hold on to the edge of the chair to prevent her from falling over. There was so much that had been kept from her; so much important information she had been denied the right to know.

"C-continue…play the file…"

"_I left all the stuff you lent me here in the temple, including the Rescue armor. I've disabled all access I had to your secure server, and I washed and dried the clothes you lent me. I've also cleaned the mess you had here, and please try to be a little bit more organized from now on, OK? It took me two hours to find a broom!"_

"Pause." She sighed. _The Rescue armor? I…I had a suit?_

The ginger then looked down at her borrowed clothes and shook her head. She was doing it all over again, even without knowing she did it before; she was repeating the story. She was borrowing his clothes, using his tech, cleaning his lab, being kidnapped because of him…

Falling in love with him…

All over again.

"Play."

"_I love you, Tony." _The words made Pepper's head look up to stare at her holographic projection._ "I wish I could've told you in person. I tried telling you during the Makluan fight, but I didn't have the chance to do it. I thought I'd have another chance to tell you later, but I blew it. And, if you feel anything for me, even if it's just anger, please honor this request: do not look for me. Do not call me; do not try to contact me for anything or in any form. I don't want anything to do with my life in New York, and I want to start a new life with my mom. I've already said goodbye to my dad, your dad, Roberta and Rhodey. This is my goodbye to you, Tony Stark."_

Her mouth went agape. She could not believe she had been the one to request to be left alone! Why would she ask him to forget about her? Not to contact her? Why had she not wanted anything to do with her life in New York, this being the only life she knew?

"_I mean it," _The hologram continued._ "Don't look for me. I'll arrest you if you do."_

Pepper remained silent and unmoving as the file closed and the lights came back on. There was so much information in that one projection she could not wrap her head around it all. She was adopted. She had chosen to leave, to end it with him. She had asked him to leave her alone; to forget about it all. He had just been honoring her request. Even if he had kept her around and with him, he had not pursued a romantic relationship with her and had moved on with Maya Hansen. He was just doing as she had asked of him.

_No_, she told herself. _There must be more to it than this. There must be a good reason. It can't be as simple as this._

"Computer," Pepper stood up from the chair and looked at the largest screen there was in the room. "Show me everything you have about Pepper Potts….and Rescue."

xxxXXXxxx

He felt as if his body was made out of iron, literally, and when the chute took him back down to the lab after his long mission all he wanted to do was crash on his bed in the back room and sleep for days, and maybe have Pepper's arms around him as he did…maybe her lips on his lips…maybe…

_No_, he told himself. _I made a decision. It's done. It's over. It's never happening. I promised Gene and I promised Pepper. She didn't want me to look for her, even if it was for the wrong reasons. I've already screwed things up too much. I have to fix this, somehow._

When the doors opened and he exited the armor compartment, his breath caught in his throat. Pepper was sitting on the floor of the temple and no longer in her clothes but his – surprisingly, the same ones she had worn the day he had left her in the temple – papers, books, a laptop and pictures were scattered all over the place around her, and the Rescue armor was standing behind her as if it were her bodyguard. _Oh, no._

He removed the suit from his body, returned to it its compartment and took slow steps toward the redhead who had an unreadable look on her face as she watched recordings of the security feed of the Makluan invasion. Tony stood a few feet from her, all color drained from his face, not sure if he should move any closer or run away, and when her head looked up at him, he flinched.

"So, Gene's not a normal kid, either, huh?"

Tony slowly shook his head left and right.

"And Rhodey's War Machine…and I'm adopted…and Whitney Stane almost killed me…and I'm a superhero, just like you."

When Tony did not utter a word and just stared at her like a deer caught in the headlights, she stood up and began pacing the room. "Well, this is just…_perfect_! When were you planning on telling me this? Or did just hope I'd never ask about it?"

"Pepper," he lifted his hands in what he hoped was a placating gesture. "I couldn't just up and tell you everything. It's a lot to take in."

"Oh, you think?" She said sarcastically and rested her hands on her hips. "How about you just say you were too much of a coward to tell me? You know, if you don't love me anymore, you could've just said so. You didn't have to lie to me, keep all of this from me, just so that I wouldn't figure out you've moved on!"

"What?" Tony frowned, ire and confusion slowly rising inside him. This was not what he thought he was coming back to.

"This is why you didn't tell me, right? Because if I found out about you being Iron Man and me being Rescue, I would've found out about us being together!"

"OK, now _I'm_ confused," he pointed his right index finger toward his chest. "Where is this coming from?"

"You know, at first I thought you were just doing what I said: not looking for me, but then I found this," she said as she waved a miniature USB drive in her hands. "And I realized you didn't even bother to look for it!"

"What are you talking about? What the hell is that?"

"Private Eye."

"Private Eye is a hologram."

"Yes, a hologram I left for you…a clue."

"A clue? Pepper," he rubbed his temples with his hands. "You…you're not making any sense."

"No, I'm making PERFECT sense!" She spat and then walked up to him. "You…you wanted out, didn't you? After I said those words to you…those words I didn't mean…after I said I didn't want us to be together…you wanted out, didn't you?"

"Pepper…when…how did you remember?"

"I didn't. The computer has been showing me logs and videos. I saw it, Tony. I saw how you walked out on me when I begged you to stay, and now I know why. You wanted to leave. You wanted for us to break up!"

"What? Pepper, that's the last thing I wanted for us…I…I wanted to work things out."

"Did you? Then why didn't you pick up my clue?"

"WHAT CLUE?"

"This," she pointed to the drive again and when Tony's face showed how confused he was, she sighed. "Computer, run file: Private Eye, no audio. Password: 09172009."

The computer immediately complied and both teens watched the holographic projection. Tony waited to see what he was supposed to have missed and when the holographic projection of Pepper turned back, Pepper asked the computer to pause the recording.

"Computer," the redhead said. "Rearrange the projection to show the actual location of user Pepper Potts when the recording took place."

The computer again complied and showed the actual position where Pepper had been standing in. The ginger then grabbed Tony's wrists and pulled him with her to the general area where the holographic Pepper was starting at. "Computer, triangulate the position of the object that is being stared at based on the hologram's eye trajectory."

_How fucking long was I gone on that mission?_ Tony asked himself silently in amazement as he saw the ease with which the redhead was using the tools of his lab after being here for just a few hours. Then again, this was Pepper he was talking about, the first person that had suspected him to be Iron Man. The fact that she had probably already cracked every secret of the world hidden in his logs should not come as a surprise to him.

A second after Pepper's order the computer lit up one of the many lasers in the temple and it pointed toward a particular spot on the back wall. Pepper released her grip on Tony and tapped the loose brick on the wall a couple of times and it came right off. "I found this paper and this drive hidden in here."

"When?"

"Just an hour after you left for the mission, and I started investigating on my own."

"Investigating, what? Pepper, I…why would I even…how was that even a clue? A clue to what?"

"Ugh!" She threw her hands in the air, not believing how the genius was not following along. "Didn't you find it weird that I'd just suddenly turn back? I mean, who else would've been here with me when I recorded this? You left me! You left me alone in here!"

"I…I did see it, I just…I didn't think much of it," he acknowledged.

"Well, I _did_ think much of it after watching it ONCE and after thinking about it, I found this," she showed him the drive again and the small piece of paper with the name of the file and the password stored in the drive. "How could you _not_ think anything of it? You've played Private Eye 473 times!"

Tony pursed his lips; silently cursing at his tattletale of a computer. "What's in it?"

"My real message."

"What real message?"

"This one," she said, walked over to the laptop on the floor and put in the USB drive in the appropriate slot. She then extended the screen where the recording was about to play onto the large screen in the temple and crossed her arms over her chest as she observed Tony watching the recording.

The footage showed Pepper in a dark place, her face close to the screen he assumed was an embedded webcam in a laptop, probably her own. Pepper kept constantly looking behind herself, as if she was afraid someone would suddenly catch her in the act. _"Tony,"_ the recording began. _"Something's wrong. Thank God you got my clue! I…I didn't know how else to tell you without her finding out."_

The inventor narrowed his eyes and walked closer to the screen.

_"I think my mom is not who she says she is. I've been doing some digging and her records show that she doesn't live in California anymore. I…I could be wrong, but I think she's hiding something. I don't know what it is but I need to find out. I…"_

The redhead in the video looked over her shoulders for a few seconds and then back at the screen. _"I don't have much time. She's getting our flights ready and she'll be back in my room to check up on me any second now. I'm going to let her think I don't know what she's doing for now, but I'll find out what she's up to when I move in with her. Please, please don't let her know you suspect something. I don't want her to hurt you. Just give me a few weeks and I'll contact you with an update. Just pretend you haven't heard from me. I'll call you as soon as I get the chance."_

The recording showed Pepper holding her breath and her eyes shifted to her right, as if she was trying to decide whether the sounds coming from behind her were closing in or going away. She swallowed hard and sighed before she returned her attention to the screen.

"_I think she's trying to hurt my dad, or you, or maybe even me, but I don't know why. I…she had a birthmark on her back, she's always had it but yesterday when I saw her come out of the shower it wasn't there. Maybe she got it removed, I don't know, but that got me thinking and…she's not who she says she is…maybe she wants money after all, like you said, or maybe she's just bitter that me and my dad are so happy without her…I…I can't tell…all I know is that she's dangerous and planning something against us, and I won't let her harm my dad, you or anyone else."_

Tony's hands reached over to the screen when she smiled and he smiled back at her, for a second forgetting he was being watched by the real redhead just a few feet away from him.

_ "The Private Eye file…it's not all true. I don't want us to split up but…I…I do love you, Tony. I just…I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said about not wanting to be with you. I was mad…stupid…but now…" _She sighed._ "I have to take care of this before anything else. We'll talk about us later, alright? I have to fix this first. I'll see you soon…I hope…bye."_

The screen cut to black and the recording stopped. Tony looked down at the console and then back at Pepper who had a saddened look on her face as she spoke. "This is so fucked up, isn't it?"

Tony chuckled bitterly and shook his head. "I feel like an idiot. I…I never thought to look. I…" his voice trailed. He could not tell her why he had not seen her clue even though he knew why. He _had _watched the file 473 times, that much was true, but not the entire video; he had just replayed the part where she had told him she loved him. He loved hearing her voice say that to him.

Pepper hugged herself and looked away from him and at her suit. "I want to know everything. I know what I've read is not all there is to know."

"It isn't," Tony agreed and walked up to her. "There's so much more."

"Is there…" she struggled to keep her tears at bay. "Is there anything else out there that I don't know about that could make this work?"

"I," he gulped. "I don't know."

Pepper nodded to him, not so much in agreement but in understanding that she knew what he had meant. In just twenty-four hours their perfect life together had come crashing down under its own weight. She bitterly remembered how during her birthday she had dared to think that everything was going great for her. She just had to go and jinx herself; she had asked for the badness that had now ruined her life.

Tony, not knowing what else to say or do, dared to unfold her arms and pulled them to rest on his shoulders. He then rested his forehead on hers and his hands found her waist under his t-shirt, his thumbs stroked the skin there. They both closed their eyes and sighed, for a moment forgetting everything that had been said.

"I want to remember," she whispered to him, eyes still closed.

"I know," he whispered back, not daring to open his eyes just yet.

"I…I need Gene."

"Why?"

"Because…because he can help me. He can get me my memories back."

"Are you sure that's what you want? Before this happened, you said you wanted to forget. You said you wanted to forget that…"

"I didn't mean it," she interrupted him. "I was angry and scared."

"And now?"

"I'm still angry and scared but I also want my life back. I didn't know I wanted it until…"

"Until you couldn't have it anymore," Tony finished for her, knowing damn well how that felt. "Do you think he'll agree to help?"

"I don't know, but I have to try."

"Let me talk to him," Tony suggested.

"I think he likes me more than you, Tony."

"True, but if he doesn't listen to me, then you can swoop in and strike him when he's down; just like you did with Sasha," he jested and was rewarded with a giggle from the ginger.

"How fast can he be here?"

"It depends on how fast he _wants_ to be here. Last time it took him a few minutes when I told him you needed help."

"Maybe he'll stop by as fast as last time if you tell him I need help again."

"Maybe."

They remained in the same position, eyes closed, in each other's arms, enjoying the rare moment of peace between them until Pepper cleared her throat and spoke up. "Tony, what do you want out of this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you want to start things up again or…with Maya in the picture now, maybe you want to…" She could not bring herself to say the words she knew he could easily say. "I just…I want to know where we stand…I want to know what you want."

"All I want is to keep you safe."

"Do you have to be so vague?"

"Do you have to ask?" He chuckled.

"Jerk."

"Your jerk," he said, and had to stop himself from saying _for now_.

"Can we call Gene now?"

"We can," he said. "But there's something I'd like to do first."

Pepper giggled at the familiar line coming from him; the same line he had used on her after the Makluan battle she had just finished watching. "Another distraction?"

_More like a final request_, Tony thought with sadness before he smiled at her as if nothing was wrong. "More like a moment alone with my girl."

Pepper laughed nervously when she felt his hands pull her closer to his chest and a second later his lips locked with hers.

They both took their time with the kiss, their standing positions not bothering them at all. It was as if it was the first time all over again but their movements and words of love and affection were not of two inexperienced teens that had a crush on each other. Sometime between their chaste kiss after the Makluan invasion and this very moment, their feelings had evolved.

Long gone were the two awkward kids who were just starting to understand what it meant to be in love – what it truly entailed to care for someone so deeply that their own happiness depended on the happiness of their other half. They had been gradually replaced with two young adults that had not been given a break in life for several weeks. It had only been three month since their first kiss, but in those three months their lives had changed more than they had in their last eighteen years of life.

Much later, when they had their fill of the other, Tony would call Gene, and five minutes later the Mandarin would appear in the Temple, and the ginger would be left out of the two men's private conversation for what would be the longest hour of her life.

xxxXXXxxx

"Alright, I'll do it," Pepper heard Gene say from behind her as he and Tony walked back inside the Temple from wherever Gene had teleported the pair to talk. Pepper sighed in relief and ran toward her "always looking mean," friend and hugged him as tightly as she could.

"Thank you, Gene! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"No," Gene said with a devilish smirk, "Thank _you_," he said and pointed behind him to a Tony Stark that now sported a black eye.

"What the hell?" Pepper asked and ran toward Tony, whose eye was swelling shut. "What did you guys do all this time? Fight?" she ran a finger down his eye and he flinched.

"We just settled things like men," Gene said with his smug smile and Pepper punched him on his arm on her way to the back of the lab. Seconds later she returned with a compress filled with ice and dragged the inventor to the same stool where she had been taking off the pieces of metal from his skin.

"It's like you're kids," Pepper grumbled and placed the compress on Tony's eye. "I should put you both in time out and in opposite corners of the room."

"Oh, come on, Pepper," Gene shrugged without remorse. "He had it coming."

"Oh, I'm sure he did, but next time please hit him where you can't see. He has a press conference next week about acquiring Hammer Multinational. What am I supposed to tell the press?"

"Oops?" Gene smirked.

"Ugh, men," Pepper mumbled and kissed Tony's lips, a move that was not missed by Gene as he narrowed his eyes at the inventor for it.

"Anyway," Gene cleared his throat. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's going to be painful, Pepper."

"Yeah, well," she shrugged. "It's worse not knowing I've got Ghost as my physical therapist."

"True, but I'm not kidding about the pain. This is going to hurt, a lot."

Pepper sighed. "This is what I want, Gene. Just, try to make it quick, alright?"

"Alright," Gene sighed. "Let's do it. Stark, you know what to do."

"Yeah," Tony said and stood up. He then led Pepper to the middle of the room and had her sit on the stool he had just vacated. He left the compress on the table and returned to stand behind her, ready to catch her if she fell during the process.

"Close your eyes," Gene told the ginger and she did so, and then rested her hands on her lap. "Clear your mind. Take a deep breath…and…"

Gene placed his right hand on her head and she immediately screamed.

The pain she was feeling was like no other she had felt before. It felt as if her brain was being put apart and new patterns were being carved with a jagged rock before being nailed back together. Her fingernails were digging into her skin and her entire body tensed, and just when she thought she could not handle it anymore, she felt someone's arms keeping her from falling off.

"It's alright, Pepper," Tony whispered to her as he kept her in place. "It'll be over soon. It'll all be over soon."

"It HURTS!" She managed to yell between clenched teeth and for a second Gene almost stopped the procedure, but a shake of Tony's head reminded him they had a deal.

"I'm almost done, Pepper," Gene assured her but his words did not bring her any comfort, only more pain. She saw images of Whitney torturing her, _felt _Whitney torturing her. She was mocking her, belittling her, making her scream.

"Tony! I'm sorry about the tickets!" Pepper yelled and Tony held onto her even tighter. "I'm sorry I didn't give them to you!"

"It's OK, Pep," he said, trying to hold back tears. "It doesn't matter now. All that matters is you being here."

"AAAAHHH!" Pepper threw her head back in pain when a second round of memories came. They were so scattered, jumbled together, she could not tell what was past and what was present. Images, sounds and feelings all attacked her at once, and for a brief instant she wished Ghost had just killed her hours ago. She felt hot, she felt cold, she felt tired and she felt scared. Is this what it felt like to have your life flash before your eyes before you died? Was this really what one's last moments of life felt like?

Tony kept a tight grip on her as she thrashed and screamed for the pain to stop. He could not imagine how excruciating this was for her. He had only been given a taste of this attack once – twice, actually, his second time having been just moments before he and Gene had returned to the temple, but neither time had he gone this long. Besides, as Gene had explained to him just now, showing somebody the memories of someone else, or taking away the memories from someone was not the same as returning memories to someone…or _changing_ someone's memories.

Returning memories meant unlocking the part of the brain that was blocking the recall of said memories, which caused even more physical pain in the brain. Altering someone's memories was also painful because it was similar to searching and sorting through someone's box of trinkets and souvenirs, throwing away and breaking what you did not want anymore and keeping what you still treasured. You had to pick and choose what was needed and what was not, and what was needed had to be edited. Both techniques were equally painful and overwhelming on their own, and Pepper was feeling them both at the same time.

"How much longer?" Tony asked over Pepper's screams.

"Almost done," Gene responded, sweat now appearing on his forehead. Even the great Gene Khan was having trouble keeping up with the amount of energy that was being used. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Tony responded and a moment later Gene's free hand covered Tony's head. It only took the Mandarin about ten seconds to synch the redhead's and inventors shared memories – their new memories, but for Tony it was ten seconds too long. He was just being shown memories, not changed or returned, just shown in case he needed them later on, and that alone was enough for Tony not to ever want to do this again.

_It's for her_, Tony reminded himself when he felt like breaking his own neck if just to end it all. _It's all for her._

As they neared the end, Tony's lips brushed against Pepper's ear and whispered the only thing he wanted her to know, the only thing that mattered to him, even if he knew she would not remember it again; even if he knew this was the reason why he was putting them both through this.

"I love you, Pepper."

And then everything went dark for all of them.

* * *

**A/N:** The Epilogue will be posted tomorrow…if you don't kill me today XD Just remember: 8 total stories, 7 sequels to _The Last Month_. We're not done :)

**P.S.:** Kudos to Maleni! You got me! ;)


	12. Epilogue

**A/N: ***cries tears of joy* There are so many things I want to say, but all I can get out right now is something I told | OmegaInfinity |. It summarizes my current feelings very well and it will also let you know that I don't intend to keep our favorite couple apart for long:

"_Thank for your reading and reviewing and for trusting me enough to continue the journey with me. Like you said, I have something very special plan for all of us Pepperony fans."_

We just have to wait :)

Trust me. I've done worse things in other stories, but my OTPs always end up together, somehow. On to the end of this arc.

* * *

**Epilogue**

As with every new generation of incoming freshmen at Empire State University, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan had to attend orientation meetings before the school year started. Happy had gotten the afternoon session and Pepper the morning session, and not wanting to be there alone she had brought with her her friend and roommate: Tony Stark.

The pair currently sat in the chairs placed in the middle of the large conference center, waiting for the speaker to make his appearance. She had been told the orientation session would only last half a day and she was grateful for this; she was a very busy woman and had things to do, people to see.

"I don't know why they're making me waste my time here. I'm taking all online courses. It's useless for me to know where the damn cafeteria is at!" Pepper groaned as she complained to a smirking Tony.

"Well, Pep, if I had to go to MIT for the same thing you're doing now when I'm also taking online courses, you can deal with this. You're closer to your school than I am. Whenever they want me there, I have to FLY there."

"Whatever, Tony," she rolled her eyes and playfully hit his knee. "You get to use the suit to get there anyway, and I can't do that because it would be ridiculous for me to put on the suit for fifteen miles."

"You could always do it," he shrugged and smiled. "Who's gonna say anything about it? The school? Me? They love having Rescue on their roster; they'd probably even build a parking spot for her."

"A parking spot for Rescue," she mused and smiled. "That sounds so awesome!"

Tony chuckled and shook his head. He then opened his mouth to say something else but the ringing of his pod stopped him. "Uh, I gotta take this."

"Ooh, is it the girlfriend?" She teased him and wiggled her brows. "Someone's gonna get spanked! You did tell her we're here, right?"

"Yeah, she knows. We moved our breakfast date to a dinner. But this is not Maya, it's Rhodey."

"Ah, cool! Say hi for me."

"I will. I'll be right back. I'mma take this over there," he pointed to the edge of the room and Pepper nodded.

"Alright," she said and waved him off right before a new flood of people entered through the double doors of the room. The ginger's eyes observed the newcomers with no particular interest until a set of sunglasses caught her eye.

Several feet away from her, Tony stood by the wall, his pod in his ear, listening to his childhood friend's rant. _"I can't believe you did this to her! Are you fucking stupid? This is the worst thing you've ever done to her!"_

"Rhodey, I _had_ to do it," Tony defended his decision of a week ago. "There was no choice. Besides, why are you bitching about me for it? You're the one who suggested it!" The memory came back to the both of them, and Rhodey knew he had inadvertently put his foot in his mouth…for once.

_"I can't believe she did all this!" Tony yelled. "All of this to get back at me? Why didn't she just attack me, huh? I'd let her break my arm if she had wanted to! Why did she have to take it out on Pepper?"_

_ "You know why, dude," Rhodey reminded the genius. "Would it have really affected you that much if Whitney had attacked you directly? Anyone who knows you and Pepper – even Stane knew – that to get even with you all they have to do is hurt her."_

_ "But, Rhodey…I…" Tony sat back on his chair, sighed loudly and shook his head. "Is this how it's always going to be with us? Can I really not be with her?"_

_ Rhodey's brows furrowed and he shrugged. "If I said that there's a high probability that she will be in constant danger for the rest of her life, will you stop seeing her?"_

"I had to, Rhodey," Tony repeated and closed his eyes briefly. "If I want her to be safe…I…I had to. There is no other way."

_"So now what? Are you just gonna pretend it never happened?"_

"I…" Tony began as he opened his eyes again but then something in the crowd caught his attention.

_ "You what?"_

"I…" Tony tried to respond again but the scene unfolding before him had him floored. Pepper was no longer sitting by herself, and a tall, brown-haired young man with a weird-looking set of sunglasses on, was sitting next to her. They appeared to be having a very interesting conversation, and when Pepper blushed furiously at something the man said to her, Tony's heart stopped.

_"Tony, are you still there?"_

"Yeah," Tony swallowed hard. "Yeah, I'm still here."

_"What happened?"_

"Nothing, nothing…I…uhm…it's just…" he sighed and watched as Pepper spared him a glance and mouthed to him that the guy sitting next to her was cute. Tony smiled back at her and wiggled his eyebrows at her to let her know he approved and she gave him a discreet thumbs-up before returning her attention to the attractive, young man. It was then that Tony realized the man was sitting where the inventor had been sitting just moments ago, and by now all of the other nearby chairs were being used.

_"Tony?"_ Rhodey insisted on the other end of the line. _"What is it?"_

"I…uhm…it's nothing, it's…it's my place. Someone just took my place."

After a final glance toward his beautiful, beaming ginger, Tony swallowed hard and ended the call, and his subsequent absence from the orientation session would go unnoticed by the woman that still owned his heart.

**THE END**

* * *

**A/N:** *coughs* *shifty eyes*…there's a reason, I promise. Go read the sequel; it will be up tomorrow and it's called _The First Year_. Yes, the FIRST year…of many to come. ;)

Big plans, I tell you. BIG PLANS.


End file.
